


They Never Know

by messynss



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Fluff and Smut, Highschool AU, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-01
Updated: 2017-06-07
Packaged: 2018-11-07 15:51:10
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 38,625
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11062197
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/messynss/pseuds/messynss
Summary: They were not boyfriends. They were not even friends in term. They never hang out with each other at school. They were only hanging out away from any of their schoolmates, wherever they deemed safe from anyone who might see and telltale any gossip about them. It wasn’t hard at all. Nobody knew about Lu Han and Minseok behind the closed door.





	1. Intro

**Author's Note:**

>   
>  Based on this [Xiuhan AU Aesthetic](https://twitter.com/xiuhanaesthetic/status/833509655615832064)  
> Original prompt by [@TehPrincessLeia](https://twitter.com/TehPrincessLeia). Go check out their [works](http://archiveofourown.org/users/deadgirldancer/pseuds/deadgirldancer) too!  
> Warning: underage drinking, underage sex with consent from both parties, two highschoolers adulting, a disgusting amount of fluff and sap, inconsistent length of each chapter.

 

Minseok was eating at the school’s cafeteria with his classmates when the phone vibrated in his pocket. He quickly shoved another mouthful of sandwich and gulped down his drink. He knew who might text him around these times. And that was the cue that he needed to get out from there.

“I have to go, I remembered I had to find something in the library,” he told his friends at the table. It was an excuse that he often used, knowing that his friends won’t bother the bookworm who liked to browse heavy books for fun reading, someone like Minseok himself. Once he used excuse that he had to finish his homework before the class started, but it was not the most believable thing, because his friends knew that Minseok _was_ _not_ the type of person who let his homework unfinished before he went to school. He remembered the first time he used the lame excuse and saw his friends surprised expression before he had to stutter out his reasoning, lame reasoning at that.

The excuses were all lies, of course.

The truth was that he had to see someone. And get something done with that someone.

Once he got in the nearly deserted hallway, he opened the text message waiting to be read on his phone. “ _Third floor, men’s restroom”_ it said. He deleted the message quickly and shoved the phone down his uniform’s pants’ pocket. He headed to the foretold place and readied himself. He opened the bathroom door and saw that only the far left stall was closed. Nobody else was in the bathroom right then. He shut the door and it clicked loudly as it was locked. The one in the far left stall let the stall door opened after hearing the loud click, knowing who would enter the bathroom that time and bother to lock the door. It was an invitation for Minseok to go in there and get something done with the boy waiting for him. Without wasting any more time, he shoved the door open wider and grinned to the pretty face he often saw.

The pretty face he often saw discreetly in the school’s hallway, or the school’s men’s restrooms, or the locker room, or the hotel rooms, or in Minseok’s room, or in _his_ room, or sometimes under him on the bed naked and writhing in pleasure. All in all, it was the same pretty face of the boy he swore he never knew of to his friends. It was the pretty face of Lu Han.

Without hesitation, Lu Han lunged himself onto Minseok as soon as he saw him to wipe that pretty grin on the shorter boy’s face. He shoved his tongue quickly after he nipped at the shorter boy’s lower lip, relishing on the taste of each other’s mouth.

“Mhm, delicious. What did you eat?” Lu Han whispered for a moment they broke the kiss. But he didn’t wait long for the answer, because he quickly continued his doing on Minseok’s tongue. He answered his own question after with a small squeal, “Hmm, strawberry milkshake? My favorite!”

“Yes, the thought of you crossed my mind when I was in the cafeteria. You’re lucky today,” Minseok said with a sly grin. Once again, Lu Han wiped off that grin with his mouth.

“The luckiest,” he said shortly before hastily opened the few buttons of Minseok’s uniform shirt. This time Minseok didn’t wear anything underneath that shirt, so Lu Han quickly attacked his neck with soft kisses and work his tongue on it too.

“So, what do you want to do today?” Minseok asked while the other man was working magic with the tongue on his collarbone.

“You,” Lu Han said shortly. He continued his ministrations on the other boy’s toned chest and worked his way to Minseok’s nipple.

Minseok moaned. “Okay.”

Minseok closed the lid of the toilet. He reached for the toilet paper and quickly walked to the sink outside the stall to wet the paper. He heard Lu Han impatiently said from the stall, “Be quick, please. I’ve been waiting long enough,” along with a few low grunt following after. Oh, he knew what he would walk into. Sure enough, Lu Han was standing and palming himself through his uniform pants, but he was still waiting for Minseok to be done with whatever he was doing. Minseok quickly wiped the toilet seat and threw away the used wet paper into the small bin.

“Always the impatient. You, and your teenage hormones,” Minseok managed to say before working his hand on the other’s belt and pants’ button and zipper. Lu Han gave up his own hands to let Minseok palmed him instead.

When Minseok let down his boxer, the erection was springing free, leaking with some pre-cum on the tip. With his pants and boxer pooled around his ankle, Lu Han was shoved down to sit on the closed bidet. Minseok kneeled down to find the small packets he knew Lu Han had been carrying in his pants pocket. He gave the condom to Lu Han and took the lube for himself. He put the small packet in between his teeth and began working on his own pants, quickly shoved them down along with the boxer. Lu Han was watching intently at him all the while squeezing his own cock lazily.

Minseok closed the stall door and locked it, just in case. He opened the package in his teeth and poured its content onto his fingers. He coated them with enough liquid and took a look at Lu Han’s face before he faced the stall door and bent over to lift his ass up. He threw the last smirk over his shoulder, specially directed to Lu Han. And of course, Lu Han was still watching intently with anticipation while still working his hands on his own cock lazily.

The smaller boy whimpered softly when he shoved his first finger. His other palm was on the stall door, just to keep him still. He relaxed himself, because he didn’t want the other boy to wait any longer. While he liked pleasuring himself in front of the pretty boy, he knew this was not the place to prolong the show. He could do it another time in another place.

Lu Han let out a synchronized low moan when he saw Minseok shoved the third finger and taking them in and out of the hole. He watched the way Minseok crooked his fingers inside in a scissoring motion to open up a bit more and curled the fingers to find that one spot.

“I don’t want to ruin the fun, but you’re having way too much fun with yourself right now. I wanna have the fun, too,” Lu Han whined when enough was enough.

“Oh, I thought—” Minseok moaned softly when his fingers brushed his prostate, “I thought you’re enjoying this too.” He pulled out the fingers and faced the other boy. “Oh well,” he kissed the boy sitting on the toilet, “Now you enjoy _this_.”

He propped his arms on Lu Han’s shoulders while letting himself down onto the waiting—standing cock. They let out the uniformed moans from each one’s mouth. They couldn’t be too loud, so Minseok took the initiative of the open mouthed kiss to drown the loud noises that might ensue. Lu Han relished on the kiss while he gripped the boy on his lap tighter but still guiding him in and out. He felt Minseok whimpered in his mouth when Lu Han’s cock hit the prostate. Knowing this, Lu Han started to thrust himself upward to meet with it again and again.

“Min, I’m close.”

“Touch me.”

Without another command, Lu Han let go of his grip on Minseok’s hips and started stroking the boy’s erection in time with his thrust. He didn’t pull out, because he was wearing a condom, and those two words also worked as Minseok’s plea for Lu Han to come inside him. And Lu Han did what he needed to do, in time with Minseok’s onto Lu Han’s hands.

They sat there to catch their breathing after the blissful moment. Minseok looked down to see Lu Han breathing heavily through his mouth. Minseok smiled lazily as he took a look of themselves, both a little sweaty and gross and panting unattractively. He then pulled himself out and stood, inspecting. “Nice. We didn’t get any on our clothes this time.”

Lu Han laughed at the comment. He reached for the toilet paper to wipe his hand and then took off the condom and threw them away into the waste bin. He then began dressing again while Minseok doing the same to himself.

After they were decent enough, with Lu Han’s appearance of a lazy schoolboy without any care in the world, while Minseok’s the pristine clean-cut appearance of an honor roll student, they got out from the bathroom stall. They looked in the mirror to fix their own disheveled hair.

“What are your plans for the weekend?” Lu Han asked while watching Minseok fixing his already neat hair and uniform.

“None that I know of. Do you have something in mind?”

“I was thinking that maybe if you want to try the new rooftop restaurant at that hotel we visited that one time. My treat,” Lu Han said. Minseok thought that he might be heard the hopeful tone coated in the usual casual tone Lu Han often used for invitation like these.

“Sure,” Minseok shrugged. “Should we have a sleepover too?” he said teasingly.

“That would be fun. I’ll book the room,” Lu Han grinned.

“I’ll wait for your text,” Minseok said before giving the boy a short peck on the lips for goodbye. He walked out first from the bathroom and headed to his next class. He knew Lu Han was stalling himself for another good minute before walking out of there too.

And then they acted like nothing had happened at all.

 


	2. Prelude

 

They were not boyfriends. They were not even friends in term. Minseok had his own friends and Lu Han had his own friends. They never hang out with each other at school. They were only hanging out away from any of their schoolmates, wherever they deemed safe from anyone who might see and telltale any gossip about them. It wasn’t hard at all. Minseok’s friends were the types who never pry each other for personal information, unless they’d been told about, while Lu Han mostly shoved other people when they got too close to reveal anything personal. Nobody knew about Lu Han and Minseok behind the closed door. They never know.

 

They talked with each other for the first time at a high class party for the pretentious high-class social circle. It was for the celebration of something they had forgotten about. Lu Han as the son of a multimillionaire corporation of architecture-based industry, and Kim Minseok as the son of a software gaming empire. They were two bored teenagers who were being dragged into a party of rich people by their own parents. Nobody else at the party was of their age, so it was hard not to notice each other at that time.

When Minseok was relieved from his parents introducing him back and forth to some directors or managers or partners or something, he plopped down on to an empty couch in the far room. He caught the eyes of the doe-eyed boy he knew he had seen somewhere else other than this party. The doe-eyed boy was sipping on his wine quietly while scanning the room, looking as bored as Minseok was. When they locked each other’s eyes that one time, recognition finally downed in each others’ face. The standing boy walked to the wine buffet and grabbed another glass before heading towards the boy on the couch. Nobody cared about the underage teenagers drinking alcohol in this kind of party, so nobody noticed how much the doe-eyed boy had drink on his own time at the party.

“I knew I had met you somewhere. You go to S high school, don’t you?” the doe-eyed boy with brunette hair said before offering a drink to Minseok.

“Yeah. It seems like you go there too. I’m in 11-1,” Minseok said while taking the drink he’s been offered into his hand.

“I didn’t know I might meet a schoolmate in here. This party is sooo boring. Nice to meet you, I’m Lu Han. I’m in 11-7,” the boy, Lu Han, said.

“Likewise. I’m Kim Minseok.” He scanned the standing boy up and down. “How much have you drunk?” He patted the spot beside him on the couch to signal Lu Han to sit down.

Lu Han plopped down with a sigh, he was too drunk to think straight. “One, two, three,” he raised his fingers along with the count, “four, five... I don’t know. I’ve lost count along the way.” He giggled with his eyes unfocused.

“I should catch up then,” Minseok said before downing the glass of wine in his hand.

“You should. This party is sooo boring,” Lu Han drawled lazily.

Minseok got up from his seat when he felt a hand on his wrist.

“Where are you going?” Lu Han whined.

Minseok grinned at the adorable act. “Another,” as he raised his empty wine glass to let Lu Han knew what he meant. At this Lu Han grinned widely and let him go.

He came back with two glasses of wine for himself. God knew he wouldn’t let Lu Han had another. He put down one of the glasses on the end table beside the couch, before sitting beside Lu Han. Lu Han who had been watching everything with bored expression quickly faced him to strike another conversation, “So, Mingsok, what are you doing in this boooring party?”

Minseok snorted at the mistake. “It’s Kim Min-SEOK, not Mingsok, you drunkard.” He took another sip of his wine. “I was dragged here by my parents, by the way. They thought that it would be nice to have some connections for my future. I’m 17 for god’s sake.”

“Parents are terrible. Mine are too. I thought, eh, what the hell, because I was getting bored at home. I didn’t know that this party would be just as boring. This sucks.” Lu Han looked around longingly. “Well at least they serve the best wine,” he tipped the almost empty glass of wine to prove his point.

Minseok finished quickly the wine on his hands and reached for another on the small table. “Yeah. What do your parents do?”

“L Industry. They do architecture thingy. What about yours?” he asked Minseok. He would know from Minseok’s parents he saw earlier if what they did were the same field as his father’s industry. But he never saw them before in another party, so he had to ask.

“Kim Empire,” and when Minseok saw Lu Han’s surprised face, he knew he didn’t need to explain further. Instead he said, “Architecture is cool, by the way.”

“No way! I played their game all the time!” Lu Han rattled off his interest in the list of games he often played that were created by the Kim Empire. At the end of his babble he added, “Those games are awesome! I never get bored playing them. And that is rich coming from me, who finds everything boring all the time.”

Minseok laughed at the childish revelation, “Sure. I’ll keep that in mind. I’ll make sure your compliment to reach the people working on the game you’ve listed.”

They fell into lazy conversation, just to know each other better, but nothing too personal. They found out that Lu Han was a part of soccer team, and Minseok was the graphic designer of the school paper. They laughed at each other’s silly antics, like Lu Han’s laughing face, or Minseok’s scrunching up face when he got his shirt a very tiny red splotch because he spilled little wine on it. At some point, Lu Han reached out to hug Minseok after his failed attempt to rub away the tiny red dot.

“What are you doing?” Minseok asked bewildered. This boy was strange.

“Nothing. I just thought you need a hug, because you were that close to crying,” Lu Han said sheepishly not breaking the hug. “Besides, you looked so comfy and fluffy. I wanted to know the feeling of hugging something comfy and fluffy that is not my pillow,” Lu Han sighed in content.

Minseok allowed himself to be manhandled. Because he knew this strange boy was drunk, an adorable drunk at that. He decided to just humor him a bit and return the hug.

“I’m not one to cry over a spilled wine. It’s just that it gets onto my clothes. It’s annoying,” Minseok huffed. And he could feel the laugh vibrating from Lu Han.

After Lu Han released him, he could feel the stare as he was being held at arms’ length, eyes flitting from the dark brown orb of Minseok’s eyes to his wine-bloomed lips. And then Lu Han hesitantly went closer and closer. Minseok closed his eyes, waiting.

But before anything happened, Minseok remembered where they were and opened his eyes suddenly. They were in the relatively empty part of the big hall, far from the center ballroom that most adults were lingering in their business-related conversation, but he couldn’t risk got caught in the middle of a party doing something so intimate with the other boy.

“We can’t do this,” he whispered, eyes locked with Lu Han’s. He saw Lu Han’s face fell and soon to be replaced with guilt. Before Lu Han got the wrong idea, he whispered, “Not here. Come on.” He got up and took Lu Han’s wrist to drag him outside of the big hall. Lu Han followed in relief that he didn’t do anything wrong yet.

As soon as they got to the nearest deserted alcove, Minseok released the tight hold he had on Lu Han. Instead, this time it was Lu Han who gripped his waist as he kissed Minseok with fervor. Minseok wasted no more hesitation to return the sentiment. The kisses heated quickly as Lu Han shoved his tongue into the other’s mouth. They hummed contently as they tasted each other.

“They really served the best wine,” Minseok said when they took a brief breathing break.

“Told ya.” Lu Han grinned before closing their distance once again.

They continued their heated make-out session with hands all over each other. Minseok dragged up his hand from Lu Han’s neck to pull the brunette hair lightly, while Lu Han groped Minseok’s ass cheek. When Lu Han started grinding, Minseok let out a soft moan and broke the kiss. Lu Han didn’t stop what he was doing, and instead he started nipping at Minseok’s jaw and neck while still rocking their body together.

“If you continued to be like this, I think we needed to take this somewhere else,” Minseok managed to breathe out the words. “I don’t know about you, but I’m not a fan of voyeurism.”

Lu Han laughed softly at that. He gave another peck on the lips. “Come on,” another peck, “I know places.” He took Minseok’s hand and started to walk down the hallway.

But after a few steps, Minseok tugged lightly at his hand, “Wait, wait.” Lu Han looked at him confused and stopped altogether, seemingly afraid that he’d done something wrong again and reluctantly let the other’s hand go.

But the concern was erased away quickly as Minseok patted down his unruly hair and brushed the brunette hair lightly with his small fingers so that he would look more presentable. Lu Han was staring at him mesmerized, but quickly regained himself to mirror the action on Minseok’s. At the end of it, he can’t help but reach Minseok’s cheek to caress it lightly with his thumb. But Minseok was unfazed by that while he was busy straightened out the small creases of Lu Han’s shirt and suit jacket. Lu Han quickly retreated seemingly afraid that the other boy would notice.

After another pat on his own shirt and jacket and pants, Minseok said, “Now, we’re ready.” He intertwined their hands once more.

Lu Han led the way to the elevator and called the elevator going down. When the elevator door opened, there were some people inside but they didn’t notice the two boys were holding hand. Minseok let their hands go before following Lu Han inside the elevator. The hotel ballroom was on the 17th floor, and Lu Han pushed the button 9.

Once they got out the elevator, the hallway was deserted. Lu Han reached for his suit pocket to take out a keycard and looked at the number on it. He took Minseok’s hand once again to guide him.

“Looks like someone’s been planning something that might happen tonight,” Minseok quipped while being dragged away.

Lu Han laughed softly. “Nope. Just some spoiled little brat who stole his rich parents’ hotel room keycard they booked for tonight.”

“Are you sure they won’t need it later?” Minseok asked with raised eyebrows.

“They’ve got like five other rooms booked. It’s not like they might use any of them tonight. They always did this for every party at some hotels. It’s not that hard to snatch one from the secretary,” Lu Han said.

“Why booked so many then? What’s the use? What is the purpose of it all?” Minseok wondered out loud.

Lu Han snorted. “You sounded like some high hippie. Are you sure you didn’t take any funny pill before or something?” Minseok made a face at this. “Relax. Some of the hotels in this city had some kind of affiliation with L Industry. They were only preparing in case there were some executives who might be too tired to drive home.”

“Or some underage teenager who drank too much wine at the party because it was sooo boooring,” Minseok mocked teasingly.

“You read my mind perfectly. Good thing I saw another bored teenager so that we could be bored together,” Lu Han said as they reached the door of room 977. He swiped the card and opened the door, “Now, shall we?”

They wasted neither time nor words after they locked the door close. Minseok clung onto Lu Han’s neck while Lu Han grabbed his ass. They kissed again and again with much more fervor than before. Tongues tangling, eyes closed, hands all over each other, low hums, all to savor the feeling of each other’s touch and taste. At some point, Lu Han heaved Minseok up and Minseok circled his leg around Lu Han’s waist without even breaking the kiss. Thank God for Lu Han’s thick strong thighs, because he could easily bring Minseok toward the bed.

Lu Han put Minseok down softly on the bed and continued kissing him. Their tongues were dancing along with Lu Han’s rhythmical grind. Minseok let out a loud moan when the ministration was too much for him. He stopped everything altogether before he came embarrassingly quickly.

“Lu, how drunk are you?” Minseok asked before he took any decision, his voice hoarse and low.

“I’ve been sobered up a bit while we talked earlier in the ballroom. In case you didn’t notice, I haven’t taken another sip of wine after that last glass,” Lu Han said innocently, looking at the boy under him. “How about you?”

“Three glasses of wine are nothing for me,” Minseok said honestly. “Are you sure you want to do this?”

Lu Han seemed to think for the right answer, “I won’t do this if you don’t want to. We can stop at any point you wish.”

“That’s the right answer. I want to.”

“Okay,” Lu Han returned the smile. He kissed Minseok again chastely before getting up. “Just a quick second.” He headed toward the bathroom while Minseok waited and thinking what might happen after.

Minseok heard Lu Han rummaging some cabinets and drawers from the bathroom. Minseok did nothing, just waiting. He got nervous for a while but quickly calmed himself down because he knew he wanted this. Maybe the alcohol in his system had helped him a little bit.

Lu Han came back again with some small packets in hand. He threw them on to the bed before taking off his suit jacket and threw away series of his clothing somewhere on the floor. Seeing this, Minseok came again from his dazed state and quickly got up to take off his own jacket too.

“How are we doing this?” Minseok asked with a hint of timid nerve while folding his jacket neatly and put it on the couch near the foot of the bed.

He got his answer when he turned around and found Lu Han in all his naked glory already on the bed working his lubed finger in and out of him. The brunette bit his lower lips in a mixed of concentration and pleasure, a thin line of sweat began forming on his forehead. Minseok gulped visibly at the sight because it was so indescribably sinful and hot. When he heard the brown-haired boy ragged breathing and whimpered moans, he could feel his own erection twitched in his pants. He knew what he should—needed to be doing next. He took off his shoes and pants along with his boxer and started to stroke himself while watching Lu Han pleasuring himself. Moaning every once and then along with the boy on the bed.

After Lu Han prepped himself enough, he took Minseok’s hands off of the hardened cock. He put the condom onto Minseok and stroked it more with his lubed fingers. Minseok had to resist the urge to just come right then because Lu Han was so good with his hands. When Minseok had been coated enough, Lu Han took Minseok’s hand and let himself down spreading his legs open. With his other hand, Minseok lined his erection to the inviting hole and relishing the feel of the tight heat around his cock. He moaned out loud while dragging himself slowly to bottom out of Lu Han. Lu Han was no far from him, he moaned out loud of the feeling of being so full.

“Move,” Lu Han panted.

Minseok rolled his hips obediently and he felt the grip on his hand tightened. Knowing he had done the right thing, he repeated the same action again. Then he pulled out slowly and then thrust in again. Lu Han moaned at the tight friction. His grip on Minseok’s hand tightened even harder he might as well had a carpal tunnel syndrome after this.

“Why the hell are you still wearing that shirt? Don’t you worry you might get it dirty?” Lu Han managed to ask incredulously to the boy on top of him. He could feel himself shaking but he couldn’t help but ask about the ridiculousness. He let go of his tight grip on the other’s hand and began to take off the offending clothes and threw it away on to the floor.

“I forgot, okay? I’ve got distracted. _You_ were distracting,” Minseok said still thrusting in and out slowly.

“That shirt was ridiculous,” Lu Han grunted, “It ridiculously covered this kind of body,” another moan. “Stupid shirt,” Lu Han huffed. “How the hell did you manage _this_?” He couldn’t help but ask.

Minseok laughed at those comments. “My house has a pool. I swim on my free time,” he said sheepishly.

“Good for you, Kim Minseok,” and then Minseok brushed that spot that made Lu Han moaned loudly. “Oh God, right there, Kim. Do it again.”

They stopped talking altogether so they moaned simultaneously instead. Eventually Minseok knew what to do to get Lu Han made those voices again and again. “Good for me, indeed,” Minseok said before kissing Lu Han again languidly. Minseok continued his thrusting in slow but sure pace.

“I’m close. Do you want me to pull out?”

“No, you won’t make any mess. Just do it inside,” Lu Han said while squeezing himself lazily in time with Minseok’s thrust. He was close too, because Minseok had been hitting all the right spot again and again. “Harder, Kim. Hard— oh!”

Minseok upped his pace and after few more thrusts he stuttered out and relieved himself in pleasure. He could feel Lu Han tightened and squeezing him along with his own release onto his hand.

“That was amazing,” Lu Han breathed out contently.

“I won’t disagree with that,” Minseok chuckled on top of the other boy. He pulled out slowly with a grunt along with Lu Han. He let himself plopped down on his back beside the taller boy, trying to gulp as much oxygen he could take.

Suddenly, they heard Minseok’s phone ringing loudly from his jacket on the couch. After another deep breath, Minseok got up quickly to walk to the jacket suit on the couch and answered his phone. “Yes, Father? I was just walking around the building and got too caught up. Yes, I’ll be right down quickly.”

Lu Han who had been watching the whole short answers of Minseok talking to his Father with curious eyes, asked him after the call ended, “Duty call?”

“Yeah. Our car has been waiting in the driveway. Father said we’re going home in ten minutes after he finished up whatever he needed to do upstairs,” he dressed himself in quick movement. After he finished buttoning up his shirt and pants, he patted the clothes repeatedly to straighten them up. “Great. My shirt’s all wrinkled. Thanks a lot, Lu.”

Lu Han saw Minseok’s face scrunched up in concentration again for the second time that night because of that damn shirt. “That shirt deserved it. Stupid shirt. You should never ever wear it ever again. In fact, just burn it, burn it along with all of the other shirts you own. You don’t even need any of them.”

Minseok didn’t even try to hide his loud snort. “That was the stupidest thing I’ve heard today. It even beat the obnoxious comment some old geezer said about my father.”

“Yeah, but this time the statement is true. That damn shirt _is_ stupid.”

“This stupid shirt is my favorite white shirt. You shall pay for this, Lu,” Minseok said in a fake menacing tone.

This time it was Lu Han who snorted loudly. “Just text me the payment detail then,” he said airily before pulling the blanket over him.

“Aren’t you coming back to the party?” Minseok asked the boy on the bed.

“Nope. I bring my own ride. I need to sober up a bit more before driving home,” Lu Han said lazily with eyes closed. “Turn off the lights on your way out, please,” he added sweetly.

Minseok chuckled at the sweetness attempt. He walked toward the bed and ducked down to kiss him goodbye. “Goodnight, Lu,” and then he turned off the lights and head out of the room.

He didn’t even notice the giddy grin that formed on the sleeping boy’s face in the dark.

What he noticed later in the car ride home was that he forgot to ask the boy’s number. Oh well, he could asked for it later at school. It was all going to be fine.

 

It was all fine on Sunday morning when he had woken up without any hangover.

 

It was all fine on Monday’s lunchtime on his way to the cafeteria with his friends and he saw Lu Han walked from the other direction without so much of smile or greeting exchanged. He thought that maybe the boy wanted to forget what had happened Saturday night because maybe he had woken up with a bad hangover that Sunday morning with so much regret of the event of the night before.

But he got the explanation when he walked alone toward the restroom before the break over. And Lu Han was pulling him from the deserted hallway quickly to the empty restroom and locked the door just to kiss him with the same fervor he remembered clearly.

“I would never forget about that night. The only thing I had forgotten was to ask for your number,” Lu Han said sheepishly and handed his phone to Minseok and the smaller boy returned the gesture with his own phone.

“You would be a fool to even think about forgetting about me.” Minseok quickly typed his number onto the phone and handed back the phone to its owner. And then they sealed their silent promises to contact each other with another kiss.

It was all fine later when he got his first text from Lu Han, saying “ _I’m thinking that maybe you wanted to keep the whole thing as our little secret?”_ When he contemplated the meaning of the text, because there was a question mark there at the end of that sentence, he received another one saying “ _I won’t do anything you might not like to be doing.”_

In the end, he replied “ _Sure, I won’t mind having a little secret that I could share just with you.”_ without thinking too much about it. He quickly saved Lu Han’s number as _L_ and deleted the conversation.

It was all fine because the following days they would have another amazing little secret sessions just the two of them in an empty locker room or empty bathroom or Lu Han’s car or another hotel room.

It was all fine because on Thursday afternoon after Lu Han’s soccer practice, Minseok would get a text saying “ _Yah! Kim Minseok! What are you, a five year old snotty kid? Honestly! Who the hell bringing crayon to school and doodle on someone’s shirt uniform?!”_ along with the picture of the masterpiece attached on it.

And Minseok just replied “ _Payback, you dumbass. Don’t be a child and just deal with it.”_ And then he would laugh evilly on his car ride home, while his driver was looking at him from the rearview mirror with concern.

 


	3. Bridge

 

It was nearing the end of the last term before they became high school seniors when Minseok got a request from the president of the school’s newspaper club for him to interview the soccer club’s captain for their sports week issue. If he was talking about the club’s captain, then it was surely Lu Han. But he had to ask, “Who?”

“Lu Han. He’s in our year. Class 11-7,” Junmyeon said. “You can do it, can’t you?” he asked, eyes wide and hopeful.

Minseok hated when Junmyeon did that, all puppy-eyed looking so hopeful. Junmyeon was one of the few people he liked, and they trusted each other so much. Along with trust, came respect, responsibility and all that professional crap, and eventually they learned how to get the other to do what they each wanted.

If Minseok were a manga character, he would definitely be the tsundere type. That one guy who always acted cold and distant toward other people but actually very considerate toward the ones who could break through the wall he built. And sadly, Minseok was a softie at heart. With the right amount of plea, Minseok could never turn down any request as long as he could do it. And worse, he was the type of guy who always tried to prove himself that he could do anything he set his mind to.

Junmyeon used these facts he discovered about the other boy to the fullest.

“Why don’t you do it? You know that I’m not comfortable with other people. Digging around for information at that,” Minseok was putting on his best whine.

“I can’t, Minseok. I’ve already booked an interview with the basketball team captain,” Junmyeon said. “And Kyungsoo can’t because he’s been occupied with the volleyball one. And Baekhyun already with the tennis club’s leader,” Junmyeon rattled when he saw Minseok’s attempt to deny the request, “And Jongdae had to interview the headmaster regarding the issue of sports clubs activity in our school,” he cut off another possible attempt of argument.

“Ask the freshmen or something. I’m just going to stick to designing layout and editing,” Minseok mumbled gruffly.

“I can’t let them to do interviews for the upperclassmen. They might get intimidated or they won’t be taken seriously and eventually be bullied or be ridiculed,” Junmyeon reasoned.

It got Minseok thinking that it might be true, _Lu Han_ might not take the freshmen seriously. He might as well be joking around and messed with the freshmen instead of answering any question. “Aren’t you worried that I’ll get intimidated too?”

Junmyeon snorted. “I didn’t know you would be the type to get intimidated. If anything, I'm worried about you might be threatening the guy with a sharpened pencil on his throat or something when he didn’t answer your questions.” And that was also might be true. “Come on. You love challenges. Consider this as one. Just this once. And if you got too uncomfortable with it, you just have to tell me and I won’t be asking you to do these kinds of things again in the future.”

To be totally honest, Minseok knew he wouldn’t turn down this request. He just wanted to know how far Junmyeon would be pushing his button to get what he wanted. This wasn’t even a challenge for him, it was just a piece of cake he might as well share it with Lu Han later and played around with it. Asking Lu Han questions would be no problem, as long as they were not personal questions, because it would be weird asking him those types of questions. “What do I need to interview him about again?” Minseok asked.

“Just about the soccer club from the captain’s perspective, what were their achievements this year, their future plan for next year, what their goal is or something along the line. Just be creative. Don’t worry, I’m not stupid enough to ask you to dig around for some personal information,” Junmyeon said and to this Minseok sighed in relief. “The hardest thing you may have to do is to ask his permission for the interview and maybe asking for his contact number. From what I’ve gathered, he’s a very private person. You should ask him formally before the break over.”

Minseok sighed in defeat. “Fine.”

He contemplated what he should do about this. Eight months has been a good run for their little secret adventure, acting like they didn’t know each other at school in front of the unknowing people while behind the closed door with just the two of them they couldn’t even keep their hands off of each other.

He didn’t know why Lu Han decided on this kind of arrangement. Maybe he was just bored and in need of something exciting like doing some secret rendezvous with someone he had met at the pretentious party in his drunken state. Or maybe he just didn’t want anybody to know that he was involved with another boy in school.

Or maybe he was ashamed with the thought of dating some antisocial nerd in school.

No, that couldn’t be it. They were not official or anything, even between the two of them they never put any label on it. The most they could call this whole thing was _our little secret_ , it was even stated on their first messages to each other.

And Minseok didn’t mind about it at all. Whatever reason Lu Han had, he wasn’t one to ask. And it was easier that way. They respected each other’s privacy so much, and to be totally honest Minseok kinda liked that thing about Lu Han and him keeping their selves off of each other’s personal life. Talking about something personal was such a bother. Everybody had their own deepest secrets that they liked to keep.

And as Minseok walked towards the class 11-7 to find the soccer club’s captain, he was dreading on what to come knowing that he would be the one who first broke their whole act of not knowing each other at school. He could see the surprised face Lu Han would make when Minseok would strike up the first conversation with him when he knew full well that other people might be listening. And he couldn’t help but imagining the disappointed and panicked look Lu Han might wear because Minseok had broken their arrangement.

Sure enough the surprised face of Lu Han was just as he imagined it would be. Lu Han was passing out on his desk, probably catching up for sleep he didn’t get much the night before because of their late night sleepover in some hotel at the far side of the city. They had slept late and had to wake up early because Lu Han had to drive Minseok back home before dawn break because he had forgotten to bring his school uniform. Lu Han looked up from his desk to answer his classmate calling him that someone was waiting to talk to him about something, and when he caught the cat-like eyes of the stoic-faced boy beyond the opened door, he couldn’t help but widening his own eyes in surprise. Minseok swore under his breath about how Lu Han couldn’t be more obvious about the whole thing. There were people around, for god’s sake.

But before anybody even notice, Lu Han quickly regained himself and put on a straight face as he walked toward the door to the waiting boy, the sleepy demeanor had long gone. They communicated silently with their eyes and Minseok could read Lu Han’s expression of _what are you doing here?_ And that was all he saw on Lu Han, confusion and surprised expression. He then proceeded to formally said, “Hello, Lu Han-ssi? I’m Kim Minseok from the school paper,” Minseok give a small nod in greeting, “I’m here to ask if you won’t mind giving some of your time for an interview for our sports week issue, as you are our school’s soccer club team captain.” His parents must be so proud of his impeccable manner.

Lu Han, looked like he was still in a state of deer-caught-in-the-headlight, just staring dumbly because the very own Kim Minseok was there, talking to him in front of his classmates. He might be didn’t know what to do or say. He got out of his trance when Minseok repeated himself once more to get his answer about the matter. Seemingly afraid that he might annoy the smaller boy, he stuttered out his answer, “Sure. What, uh, do you want to talk about?”

“Should we take this somewhere else? Maybe today after school or tomorrow at lunch break? Whenever you deemed fit. We could do this in the library or somewhere else as per your wish,” Minseok suggested formally.

“We have our soccer practice today after school,” he blurted out, as if Minseok hadn’t known about it already, “Er, why don’t you come watch our practice? I mean—if you don’t mind waiting. We could get coffee or something after and do the interview.”

Minseok had to suppress his urge to laugh at the offer, because Lu Han hated coffee. He couldn’t even drink it without adding at least five spoonful of sugar. And it would be ended up tasted like crap.  But Minseok couldn’t tell him that, not right then, because he was supposed to know nothing about this. “Sure. I’ll come by the practice after school,” Minseok scribbled something on his pocket notebook, “This is my number. You could text me if you change your mind about this,” he tore the page and gave it to Lu Han. “Thank you for your time. I’ll see you next time,” he gave Lu Han a small bow of gratitude. That was way too formal.

It was weird to leave without their usual parting kiss. But eventually he left the place without even looking back to where Lu Han was standing immobile with a piece of paper saying “ _You hated coffee and you asked me to get coffee with you? Could you be more ridiculous Lu?”_

 

Later that afternoon, after texting his driver that he would be home late, Minseok went over the soccer field to see the practice for the first time in his high school life. He never watched the team’s practice before because why the hell should he did that. He only often sneaked around to the locker room after practice to see Lu Han, or that one time when he sneaked around to locker room during the practice to create a work of art on the boy’s uniform shirt.

Sometimes if their school had some match against other schools at their home field, he might go watch the match, because despite everything, he did like soccer. He had played when he was younger, but he didn’t go to the team’s admission trial in his freshman year because apparently he did not play well in some sports team. So he chose to be a school paper’s club personnel instead. That way he could make use of his designing talent and could have lesser interaction with other people.

Of course up until this time that he had to go be a reporter and had an interview with some sports jocks. Not that he minded, because this one was someone who he had sex with on regular basis.

Watching the soccer practice was different than watching their match. This time he could see how well Lu Han lead the team in a friendly not competitive environment. Directing the other team players about their strategies, barking order once in a while, or how he was smiling widely and had his arm encircled his teammate’s shoulder when they score a good shot. It was all good because he could see the captain as a warm person towards other people. It warmed his heart as well. But there was some slight tug on his heartstring when he watched the actions closely.

Minseok didn’t even realize that he also often had been on the receiving end of Lu Han’s warm actions.

Lu Han approached Minseok when the coach called off that day’s practice. They bowed—more like a nod to each other in greeting, just in case someone was watching. “Uh, could you wait here for more minutes? I’ll just take a quick shower and we’ll head down to the coffee shop near the intersection,” Lu Han offered.

Minseok looked around them, Lu Han’s teammates and coach had already cleared out from the field to clean up. He asked in a small voice, “Why don’t we just come straight to my house and you could take your shower there?”

Lu Han gulped audibly, already bubbling with excitement. Between the two of them, Minseok rarely was the one who initiated something. The whole watching Lu Han being the capable soccer captain he was must’ve been sparked some wanting Minseok didn’t know he would have. Two hours of waiting was long enough for him to suggestively ask Lu Han to do something they both wanted.

So Lu Han sprinted toward the locker room to retrieve his backpack as fast as he could and came back to the bleachers and dragged Minseok to his car. He didn’t care who might be watching. The whole act of pretending to be not knowing each other at school had been broken anyway.

When they arrived in Kim’s residence and stopped the car in the driveway, Minseok unfastened his seatbelt with a fast click and jumped to the driver’s seat onto Lu Han’s lap.

“Someone’s eager,” Lu Han said before a pair of lips crushed on his. “I’m sweaty and gross, just so you know,” he managed to mumbled in between lips and tongue invading his mouth.

“Don’t care,” Minseok mumbled on his lips, “It’s the shorts fault. It’s distracting. _You’re_ distracting.”

“Why do you have to be so hot getting all worked up?” Lu Han hummed.

“I repeat, blame it on this,” Minseok pulled the waistband of Lu Han’s football shorts and released the elastic so it slapped back to Lu Han’s skin, resulting a shit-eating grin given by Lu Han. Minseok cocked his head innocently before started grinding down. Lu Han let out a startled moan and eagerly continued kissing Minseok again.

It was getting on the point when Lu Han opened up a few buttons of Minseok’s uniform shirt and kissing down his neck and chest. Minseok sighed contently, letting Lu Han do what he wanted to do. He could feel Lu Han’s half-hardness under him and still continuing rolling his body to the boy. And when he felt the need to take this further, he stopped abruptly, pulling himself away from the other boy’s lap.

“What the—” Lu Han looked confused at the jet-black haired boy who was already buttoning up his shirt again before reaching for his backpack behind the passenger seat.

Minseok just grinned at him.

Oh, he knew how Lu Han wanted to wipe that grin off of that face. He groaned, because Minseok was such a horrible, horrible tease.

“Come on,” Minseok said simply, getting out of the door already. Good thing he brought his jacket today, so he could conceal what he needed to hide nicely.

“Damn it, Kim! I’m wearing freaking jersey shorts, for god’s sake!” Lu Han blubbered, calling out the boy who was already walking away from the car toward his house. Lu Han sighed exasperatedly and gave up. He opened the door after taking his backpack and put it in front of his torso and began following Minseok seemingly trying not to feel the unbearable strain.

Minseok could hear Lu Han muttered something he could assume some grumbled whine. He couldn’t help but giggle at the act. Lu Han could be so cute sometime.

The maid opened the door for the two boys and they happily greeted each other. Lu Han had already been here enough time that the maid recognized him and greeted him in a friendly tone. It was revealed after his fourth visit to the house that Lu Han was the only schoolmate of Minseok who ever visited the house. But that day, not like any other day he had been here before, Lu Han couldn’t be too friendly with the state he was in. There was a visible frown on Lu Han’s face that didn’t go unnoticed by the maid, and she asked if he was okay.

“Lu Han is feeling a bit unwell, noona,” it was Minseok who answered her to begin his explanation. “He was accidentally kicked in his stomach at his practice. I think it would be good for him to rest a bit here rather than alone at his home because his parents aren’t home yet until evening.”

Most of it was true, but instead of gotten kicked in the stomach he was left hanging. Which was probably pretty much the same feeling.

The maid bought the explanation very well and she was starting to show her concern. However Minseok continued, “I’ll bring him to my room. I’ll also bring him some snack to eat later. For now, I’ll just let him rest first.”

“I understand, young master. I’ll bring some medicines immediately.”

“Thank you, noona. We’ll be going now,” Minseok smiled at her and pulled Lu Han along to his room.

Once they got to Minseok’s room, they waited. Those minutes of waiting were hell for Lu Han.

“How could you be so calm? Don’t you have the same problem as me?” Lu Han asked incredulously after he threw his backpack on the sofa near the window.

“Oh, I am. I just hide it very well.”

“You’d make a damn good actor.”

“I’d be good at everything,” Minseok shrugged.

There were series of soft knocks outside the unlocked door. The promised medicines were brought by the maid and Minseok took them from the maid in front of the door. He thanked her again once more and told her that he would be resting too. The maid nodded understandingly and Minseok locked the door to his room.

He put down the tray on the coffee table and turned to Lu Han. “You stink,” he scrunched his nose for show. “Let’s take that shower, shall we?”

Lu Han never got up so fast from a sitting position before, that he could feel the head rush came among other things. Maybe a nice warm shower could clear his head then.

Minseok grinned and finally, finally Lu Han could wipe off that crooked grin immediately.

 

“So, what are we going to talk about?” Lu Han said as he sprawled out on his stomach on Minseok’s large bed, towel on his half-dried hair. He sounded confusingly giddy after their hot shower session earlier.

“What talk?” Minseok asked confused. He was dressing himself with black t-shirt and grey sweatpants while looking at the boy on the bed wearing Minseok’s white t-shirt that hugging the body tightly and his own navy blue boxer shorts.

“Don’t you have to interview me about something?” Lu Han lifted his eyebrows. Minseok could be so absent-minded sometimes.

“Oh yeah, that,” Minseok pondered and then he abruptly groaned. “I hate asking people questions.”

“Even if it’s me?” Lu Han asked curiously, clouding the sound of surprise and a bit of the hurt as he knew that Minseok had totally included him on the statement about him and people.

Minseok chose not to answer that, because honestly what was the use of answering that kind of question. “Let’s just start this. I don’t want to prolong this any longer,” he answered instead, further confirming his uncomfortable state about the whole situation.

Lu Han watched him silently like he was contemplating about something. He let out a barely audible sigh, “Okay, lay me your questions then.”

“It’s nothing much. Just tell me about the soccer club and your achievements so far and your goal for the incoming days. You know, the usual stuff,” Minseok said lazily while opened up his small notebook and prepped a pencil as he sat down beside Lu Han on the bed.

“My achievements and goals or the club’s?”

“Of course the club’s. Duh,” Minseok answered. He set his phone to record and put it between the two of them.

“Don’t you want to know some of my story as well?” Lu Han asked again instead of answering the earlier questions.

“We are not some gossip bulletin, Lu,” Minseok pointed out.

“You never know. Maybe some of my stories could fill up the article too,” Lu Han countered.

“You might be right. Okay, so what about the soccer club, captain?”

Lu Han began answering the questions perfectly. Minseok could see the sparks on his eyes as he saw Lu Han talks about soccer. Minseok belatedly realized that Lu Han’s eyes were kind of beautiful. Actually he had realized that Lu Han _was_ absolutely beautifully handsome. Except when he was laughing loudly. Even then he still looked adorable, because the sound that followed could always brought smile on Minseok. His lips were really beautiful all curled up a little pouty as he talked fast in his barely heard accented Korean. Cheeks bouncing up as he smiled widely. And even if Minseok wasn’t in favor of talking to other people, he thought that maybe really could listen to Lu Han talking all day.

“So, are there any other questions, Kim Minseok-ssi?” Lu Han wrapped his speech.

Minseok broke out of his reverie and thank god he recorded the whole thing, because he wasn’t really listening. Damn, he really needed to focus.

“I don’t know. Do you want to add something?” Minseok asked again blankly.

Lu Han tilted his head adorably. Not helping at all.

“All right, here’s some information. I’m Lu Han, 18 years old. My birth date is April 20. I was born in Beijing and moved to Seoul when I was in kindergarten. I like soccer, obviously. I love cats, especially fat, chubby cats because they are adorable. I wish I could have one, but sadly my parents don’t allow me to because they doubt that I could take care of another being. Parents,” he scoffed. “I’m an only child, just like you. Ever since I’ve got my first ride, I like to drive alone to clear my head and blasting on the music in my car and sing along obnoxiously. That’s why I know places you don’t.

“I love chocolates. And strawberries! Once, my mom bought a chocolate fondue fountain for my birthday and we, along with my dad, enjoyed dipping assortments of food in it. That was the best of my childhood life,” he smiled fondly at the distant memory, not really noticing that the other boy had been gone really quiet. “Um, what else? I’m smart, as you already know about it. Sometimes I think I’m some kind of a genius, but _someone_ has told me not to get ahead of myself. My first kiss was with a girl under the tree in the school backyard when I was in seventh grade. She kissed my cheek first and shied away to bolt out from me and I returned her to kiss her again on the...”

He stopped talking when he double-checked the boy beside him. Minseok was eerily silent and he was looking anywhere but Lu Han, and ultimately Lu Han was shutting up because he thought that maybe he did something wrong.

After long minutes of silence, Minseok composed himself. “Why are you telling me all these?” he asked in small voice, closing his eyes tightly.

Lu Han perked up after being asked a question. But he immediately shut off once again, didn’t know exactly what to say. Another minute of silence had passed, and Lu Han could only said, “…Sorry.”

“I didn’t need to hear any of these, Lu. What makes you think I want to know anything? Those are too personal, and I’m…” Minseok didn’t know what to finish that sentence. Honestly, he thought their whole arrangement was fine, he could deal with it. But Lu Han once again had done something that got him thinking if it was really fine.

“You’re what, Kim?” Lu Han asked genuinely curious, but it came out harsher than he could help about it.

Minseok was silent again. He closed his eyes and closed his notebook. “Maybe you should go,” he put a pillow over his head after lying down on his back, hoping that he could duck themselves out of unwanted arguments.

Lu Han looked at the boy on the bed. Lu Han looked like he didn’t really want to leave right then. He didn’t want to leave it just like that, no starting or ending something, even if it meant that they wouldn’t end up fighting. But they never fought, and somehow maybe that was a problem.

He sighed deeply, cowering to himself. “Fine. I’m sorry if I got carried away. I just wanted to talk with you. You could just forget about this and don’t let anything burden you,” Lu Han said softly. He got up from the bed and began dressing himself back in his uniform. “But know this. I’m glad I told you all those things. It’s your own liberty to forget or hate myself if those things got you uncomfortable. But for me, I feel like we’re getting a little bit closer,” _emotionally_ , Minseok felt like he could hear the unfinished word loud and clear.

Minseok heard Lu Han taking his backpack from the couch and began walking away out the door. The distant footsteps slowly fading away and not long after he could hear Lu Han’s car engine roaring away from the driveway.

It was weird to part without their usual parting kiss.

His grip on the pillow over his face tightened as the minutes passed. He wanted to scream into the pillow, but it would be ridiculous of him to do that. He groaned instead. He didn’t know what to do anymore.

Why did he have to do that?

After drowning himself in his thought, questions after questions of why but never came to any answers or reasons, and as he was tossing and turning for what feels like a long hour, he belatedly remember about the phone which was still recording since the start of the interview. He stared at the red square in the screen like it held any answer for another long minute and tapped on it. It stopped recording.

He replayed the conversations once again.

He caught some information in the midst of it. April 20th. Lu Han’s birthday was just two weeks ago. Did they do something together that day? He remembered on his own birthday, Lu Han did something that made him happy. It didn’t seem like much, but some gestures were sweet. He didn’t know why he got fond over the gestures, knowing that Lu Han could not possibly had known about that day being Minseok’s birthday, so the things he did that day was probably meaningless after all.

But Lu Han made it as such a nice day for Minseok. He wanted to return the same sentiment if he managed to find out Lu Han’s birthday, but knowing that it had passed not even after a month of his own birthday, he thought that it might be too late. It had been two weeks since the date.

 


	4. Verse

 

March 26th, Lu Han took Minseok out to eat some patisseries at a place he frequented in his pastimes. Minseok refused the invitation at first, vaguely stating that he might have something to do that day. But Lu Han was nothing but persistent.

After receiving a whole lot amount of annoying bugging questions from the boy, and later informed by his mother that his parents had rented out a house in Phuket for the weekend to spent the birthday weekend away together because his parents would be busy on the day of his birthday to celebrate, Minseok finally accepted Lu Han’s invitation. Lu Han was so ecstatic and giddy that Minseok willing to accompany him to eat some sweets, and Minseok found it so endearing, because Lu Han could be such a child sometimes.

It was Wednesday, and they met at a convenient store on the far side of the bus stop near the school about a half hour after school had ended. They always changed their meeting place as a precaution. Minseok had to walk down three blocks away that day. When he spotted Lu Han’s car waiting near the sidewalk, he rushed his step and knocked on the passenger side’s window. Lu Han greeted him with a smile, still giddy, and let him in.

They drove off somewhere reasonably far and at that time Minseok got himself wondering how Lu Han could know all these places he took them. The places were all over the city, sometimes it was on the far east side, or way up north, sometimes it was across the border, and one time they even drove 4 hours to the beach just to eat some crabs and oysters in a humble beachside tents.

“I was wandering around the city when it was past midnight and I got hungry. There were some food stalls that sell snacks and liquors that open after midnight, but I was in no kind of mood for that, and I might got scolded by the street vendor owner for wandering around past curfew. Anyway, I came across this small store that sells cake after midnight and it might be ridiculous to have cake for midnight snacks but the idea was enticing and the cake was super great I ended up took about five slices more to eat at home. It was memorable,” Lu Han explained.

Minseok just stared at him with awe. Lu Han had the most ridiculous ideas of having fun. But he knew how much fun the ideas were, especially if they were doing it together. Lu Han was such a spontaneous kid and it was kind of good fun to be around him. “If it was that good, maybe later we could take some to your house and enjoy eating them more, you know,” Minseok said while doing something with his eyebrows, subtly suggestive.

Lu Han’s eyes got wide and he looked at Minseok in disbelief. He quickly replaced it with a wide grin with his eyes crinkling. Lu Han with eyes back on the road still smiling and said, “Kim Minseok, you dirty boy. I knew all those innocent look you threw people were just one big act. You should consider getting into entertainment business. Girls would be swooning over your cutie innocent yet sexy image.”

He was replied by a satisfied hum and smile by the boy beside him.

When they pulled over, Lu Han quickly unfastened his seatbelt and reached out to Minseok to give him a long kiss. Minseok was startled at first, but he thanked for the tinted windows of Lu Han’s car, and just let Lu Han kiss him and returned the kiss with the same amount of passion. They broke out and Lu Han just stared at him with twinkle in his eyes, like he was about to say something. “Now, let’s get that cake, shall we?” Minseok said instead.

Lu Han smiled again and nodded before kissed him again chastely. They got out of their car with their jackets to cover up the uniform shirts. Inside the store, there were so many assortments of cake that they could choose, and it really seemed like they can’t choose just one or two of them. Lu Han looked like a child in a candy store, which was befitting with their situation. Minseok just looked at him with a small smile, he was glad to see him like this even if it was Lu Han that brought them here. They settled with one opera slice and matcha slice tart for Minseok, and classic chocolate lava cake and sliced glazed berries mini pie for Lu Han (yeah, no surprise there).

They enjoyed their time eating the sweet treats across each other on small the table near the window. Lu Han was too engrossed with the cakes in front of him he didn’t know he had been eating messily. Minseok tsk-ed at the boy in front of him and reached for the napkin and dabbed the messy cream on Lu Han’s cheeks and chin. “Child,” he muttered. Lu Han just grinned widely baring his chocolate stained teeth.

Lu Han took a bite into the fork and held it out to Minseok. “Open wide,” he commanded. Minseok just stare at him at first, thinking about this weird kid was at it again. “Come on, Kim. I want you to taste these too.”

Minseok reluctantly gave in and open his mouth widely, waiting. But Lu Han that five-years-old took back his hand and had a bite for himself while grinning, and Minseok closed his mouth immediately and glared at the damned child in front of him, praying to God that the brunette would choke himself. He ignored the chuckling boy in front of him by starting to stab his own share of cake, munching unnecessarily powerful for some small bites of soft fluffy cake.

“Aw, come on. Don’t be like that, Kim. Here,” Lu Han held out a hand again and smiled in glee.

“Go eat yourself. I won’t have any of yours.”

“Nooooo. I promised this is good. Come on, open wide, Kim,” he whined to the pouting boy.

“Nope. Go choke yourself or something. It would be good for me too,” Minseok said sternly.

Lu Han mocked gasp. “You did _not_ mean that! You’ll be sad!”

“No. I’m pretty sure I would be glad.”

Lu Han pouted. And looking all too pitiful. Damn, Minseok couldn’t get a hold of himself that instant. “Fine, do you want me to choke? Choke me if you’re into that kind of thing,” suddenly all the pitiful act had become a nasty smirk.

“You’re unbelievable.”

“You did not just know that,” he shrugged. Lu Han continued pegging Minseok to eat a bite of his share. Eventually Minseok gave in just to shut off the annoying whine. But he was glad because the cakes were delicious. Really unbelievable.

 

They went to Lu Han’s home after getting themselves each one box full of cakes assortment. They played around a bit with the cakes for a sweet long time. And thankfully no one choked.

“I’m taking a shower,” Minseok said grimacing after an uncomfortable amount of time having himself feeling so sticky because some of the smeared cream among other things.

“Take a long bubble bath instead. You deserved it,” Lu Han retorted lazily.

“Can’t. I have to get home before dinner. My parents are expecting me home for dinner tonight,” because despite their family plan on the weekend, they still had time to have dinner together that night. Because family time on a birthday was important after all. “Ugh, my phone has gone die. Can I use your phone? I need to call my driver to pick me up quickly.”

“No!” Lu Han said too suddenly, and Minseok was startled at this. “I mean, no, you can’t use my phone right now because it had been running out of juice too.” Lu Han was weird, too weird. He never let anyone touch his phone. “Um, you can just charge your phone over there, you know. I’ll charge mine after you've finished using it.”

Minseok walked to the said charging port without words. “Fine. You’re weird, Lu Han.”

“I have to admit that you might be right,” Lu Han said sheepishly. “You go take that shower, I’ll text your driver to pick you up immediately.”

Minseok gave him one last look before stepping into the bathroom in Lu Han’s room. He chose not to address anything about Lu Han’s act. For all he knew, Lu Han might just be ashamed that he had porn collections on his phone and didn’t want anyone to know about it. Because Minseok knew that the boy had watched way too much porn for his own good.

After been called out by Lu Han that his driver had been waiting outside, Minseok dressed himself back in his usual neat state of look. He grabbed his backpack on Lu Han’s desk and Lu Han followed him to the front door and kissed him goodbye. It was a nice day despite Lu Han’s usual annoying self.

 

That night after dinner with his parents, Minseok retreated back to his room to have his much needed sleep, because he was so tired despite all that sugar he consumed earlier. He still had to finish his chemistry homework, only three long problems more to finish, but he could just do it after he woke up early in the morning. He cleaned himself up before sleep just like usual, and went to sleep.

He drifted off to sleep for more like two hours before he jolted awake by the loud ringtone from his phone. He scrambled in to find the only light on his bedside end table and squinted at the ringing phone to see the one letter of someone who never ever called him on his phone before. It was near midnight and Minseok was contemplating to ignore the call, but he knew the person on the other line wouldn’t stop calling him if he didn’t pick up because he was _so annoying_.

“Hello?” Minseok croaked. “Do you know what time is it? I hope you know you’re waking me up in this ungodly hour and you should have a good reason for it. Or else you won’t see another light of the day, Lu.”

There was a silence on the other line, not even a sound of breathing. Minseok opened his eyes widely and looked at the only illuminating light in the dark of his bedroom once again to make sure that the line was still connected. He raised an eyebrow.

“Hello, Lu. Are you okay there? What is happening?” Minseok scrambled out nearly panicked.

“Yeah, hey, Kim,” Lu Han answered in a small voice. Minseok breathed out in relief. “Sorry to wake you up. Um, I’ll just hang up the phone and you can go to sleep again. Sorry.”

“Just say what you want, Lu. I’m wide awake anyway. Why are you calling me? You never called,” Minseok deadpanned.

“Nothing, really. Now I feel dumb and guilty for waking you up. You should really go back to—”

“Seriously. Just answer my question instead of telling me what to do. I won’t be getting any sleep if you just hang up right now,” Minseok said.

“Okay. But don’t get mad, okay?”

“I’m already mad. Go ahead and make me more agitated,” Minseok said in his usual challenging tone.

“You sounded like you’re messing with me right now. But I’m still glad I’m not in front of you lest you’re really gonna punch me if what you’re saying is true,” Lu Han said sheepishly.

“I’d like to punch you for whole other reasons. Just say what you want to say, Lu.”

“Really? What other reasons? I feel like I have to fix myself before we see each other again,” Lu Han said in a genuinely curious tone. What was up with this boy?

“Okay. I’m going to give you tons of reasons. Sit down and duck down your head to reflect on yourself,” a small smile was playing on Minseok’s lips. He was so tired he didn’t know what was coming and he didn’t really care about the words he was about to spout. “Lu, you are an annoying little shit. You are such a spoiled little brat who does what you want to do and always manages to drag me around anywhere you wish, even if I’m not in the mood for doing anything, you just can’t stop pestering me when you got the chance. You texted me a lot of cat pictures, I mean what the hell was that? Even if I ignored you, you just had to barge my notification with your texts. It was hell when you did that.”

Minseok could hear a faint giggling on the other line and he really had the urge to punch the hell out of the snickering boy. “You are such a child that I’m always questioning myself if it’s alright to let you drive or to let you drink alcohol or to have sex with you,” Lu Han was full on bursting out laughing at this point and Minseok couldn’t help the smile as he continued. “And you, oh my god, you watched way too much porn. And you thought you are way better than porn—” Minseok could hear the bewildered “ _Hey!_ ” from Lu Han but he ignored it, “—when in actuality it was me who makes it all so good for us,” Minseok finished up smugly.

There was an unstoppable laughter on the other end, and Minseok couldn’t help but laughing along. Sleep all forgotten. And it was so refreshing in the middle of the night.

“I have tons more reasons, but I don’t think you’re reflecting right now. Remind me to hit some sense into you the next time we meet,” Minseok said with a flourish.

“Okay. First of all, I have one motto in my life, and that is ‘ _What Lu Han wants, Lu Han gets_.’ And you just can’t refuse my charm because you are such a softie, Kim Minseok,” Lu Han cooed. “Second of all, cats are cute and you’re going to hell to think otherwise, okay? And I’m not a child. It’s just you who have no fun blood pumping in your body. Good thing I’m such an awesome person to introduce you to a whole new level of living your life. And I _am_ way better than porn. You don’t even watch porn, so how would you know, Kim?”

Minseok scoffed loudly. “You should really be glad not to be in front of my face right now. Or else a sweet punch would be landed on your pretty face right now.”

“For the thousandth time, Kim, stop calling me pretty. I am not pretty. I’m manly, for god’s sake! Manly, you hear me?!”

“See, you just give yourself one more reason. You and your manliness complex. It’s getting old, Lu,” Minseok sneered.

“Fuck you, Kim Minseok!”

“You wish you could do that right now, don’t you?” Minseok said teasingly.

“...Yeah,” Lu Han said sheepishly, inducing more laughter between the two of them.

“So, back to my first question you thought you could dodge swiftly, why are you calling me, Lu?” Minseok said at the end of their laughter, in a friendly but serious tone.

“I’d rather not say,” Lu Han said in a small voice.

“And here I thought you’re manly enough to admit something to yourself. You’re all talk huh, Lu?” Minseok said challengingly.

“Are you sure you want to hear this?”

“Yeah, I mean why not? You’ve woke me up anyway, I’m assuming it’s important enough to face the consequences of waking me up in the middle of the night,” Minseok answered.

“Fine,” Lu Han stopped to take a deep breath. “It’s just... I’ve woken up from a nightmare before I called you.”

Minseok thought to himself, ‘ _See what I’m talking about? You’re such a child, Lu_.’ But he didn’t voice it out because it might be not appropriate. Instead, he chose to tease him more inappropriately. “So, what, do you want me to sing for you so you can go to sleep again?”

“Wipe off that grin from your pretty face, Kim Minseok.”

“I _am_ pretty, aren’t I?” Minseok said smugly while still grinning like he was trying to prove a point.

“Although, it would be nice to hear you sing me a lullaby. Sing me a song, Kim,” Lu Han said demandingly.

“I’m hanging up now.”

“Nooo!”

“There is no way I’m going to sing anything for you. Just go to sleep and embrace your nightmare. You may want to check your closet, under the bed, your bathroom and behind the curtain.”

“Now I’m never going to sleep again. Thanks a lot, buddy,” Lu Han said sounding so pitiful.

Minseok sighed. “What do you want me to do?”

“You could always just s—”

“I don’t like repeating myself, Lu. But I just can’t stress this enough. I-am-not-going-to-sing-you-shit,” Minseok said exasperatedly not backing down even the slightest. He was surprised even with himself at the crude language, and he could hear the boy gasped on the other line.

“Fine. If you could see my face right now, for sure you won’t reject my humble request. This phone call works no good for me,” Lu Han sighed pitifully.

“No. If I could see your face right now, I might as well punch it.”

“Wow, I didn’t know you could be this mean. Why you gotta be so mean, Kim Minseok?” Lu Han should really drop the whole pitiful act or Minseok might as well cower.

“Fine. Do you want to just talk about it or something?” Minseok tried to meet him halfway.

“...No. You might find it silly. I’m not going to tell anything,” Lu Han said in a small voice.

“Sure, as you wish,” Minseok really didn’t like pestering other people to do something.

“Let’s just talk about something else,” Lu Han really sounded like he didn’t want to end the call any time soon. “Um, how was your day?” he asked hesitatingly, making it more awkward.

“We saw each other after school, Lu. You know how my day went. School was boring, we ate cake, we had fun with cake, I went home, had dinner with my parents, and woken up by some annoying child who can’t go back to sleep because the poor thing had a nightmare,” Minseok answered.

Lu Han was giggling on the other end. It was a nice sound, until, “See, what I’m talking about? You’re living such a boring life. Good thing I’ve saved the day, right?”

“Should I say thank you? I don’t think you deserve any of my gratitude, you child.”

“Why are you so adamant of calling me a child, Kim? Do you secretly have some kind of kink? Should said child call you daddy?” Lu Han said playfully.

“I’m really hanging up now.”

“NO! Wait, wait! Sorry about that. You know my deal, I’m always turning to joke around to run away from the real thing,” Lu Han admitted with a small voice. It must’ve been troubling enough for him that he could even admit that.

“If you don’t want to say what the real problem is, then don’t. I won’t force you,” Minseok said in an understanding tone. “You can talk about something else and I’ll listen. Hell, I’ll even try to put up with your terrible joke,” he continued hoping to induce a smile on the other boy’s face.

“Yeah, that’s kind of you, Kim,” Minseok could imagine Lu Han smiling while saying this, and mentally cheering that his words were working. “You know, since you refused to sing for me, what about you hear me sing instead? It’s not for you, it’s for me to feel better. And because I’m so awesome and kind to myself, unlike you, meanie,” this time Minseok could imagine the child was pouting.

“Fine. Whatever helps you sleep at night, Lu.”

Lu Han laughed softly. He took a deep breath, and began to hum a soft melody first. Minseok had a feeling he might have heard the melody before. If he wasn’t wrong, it was from an English movie from over decade ago. When Lu Han started singing the lyrics with his accented English, he recognized the song immediately.

> _It’s amazing how you can speak right to my heart_
> 
> _Without saying a word, you can light up the dark_
> 
> _Try as I may I could never explain_
> 
> _What I hear when you don’t say a thing_

Yes, it was definitely _Notting Hill_. Suddenly the face of Julia Roberts came to his mind along with the lopsided smile of Hugh Grant and his hot British accent. He couldn’t recall who sang the song though. But he closed his eyes and let himself drown in the singing voice anyway.

> _The smile on your face lets me know that you need me_
> 
> _There’s a truth in your eyes saying you’ll never leave me_
> 
> _The touch of your hand says you’ll catch me wherever I fall_

And suddenly he realized that this was Lu Han singing right then. Through the phone call. In the middle of a night. He felt warm and he smiled along the soft voice. Lu Han had such a nice singing voice.

> _You say it best_
> 
> _When you say nothing at all_

And suddenly he was hearing the lyrics and became conscious about the meaning. Was Lu Han trying to say something? But he said that he was singing to himself to make himself feel better. The song he was singing was not for Minseok. And Lu Han probably didn’t know the meaning of the song anyway.

> _All day long I can hear people talking out loud_
> 
> _But when you hold me near, you drown out the crowd_
> 
> _Try as they may, they can never define_  
> 
> _What’s been said between your heart and mine_

But it was too late, Minseok began to find the meaning of each word of the song lyrics. He was too conscious about this. And suddenly this all felt way too intimate.

> _The smile on your face lets me know that you need me_
> 
> _There’s a truth in your eyes saying you’ll never leave me_
> 
> _The touch of your hand says you’ll catch me wherever I fall_

Minseok kept quiet the whole time Lu Han was singing. He didn’t know what to do. He couldn’t stop the singing boy to ask what he was doing.

> _You say it best_
> 
> _When you say nothing at all_

Lu Han finished the song without repeating the bridge and refrain again. He kept quiet for a moment, waiting for Minseok to comment. After long minutes of silence between the two of them, he might suspect Minseok had gone back to sleep. “How was it? I have such a lovely singing voice, right? Are you swooning right now?” he asked with his usual casual tone, like he wasn’t just singing a romantic song to someone on the phone.

Minseok still kept mum. But Lu Han still could hear him breathing on the other line.

“I guess you’ve gone back to sleep, huh?” Lu Han continued.

Minseok could just keep silent and Lu Han could keep assuming that he had fallen asleep. But he couldn’t help the train of thoughts hanging around in his mind. “Yeah, it was nice,” he blurted out in a croaked voice.

“I thought you were asleep already. Are you swooning and you’ve gone speechless over my singing?”

“It was good, Lu. You have a nice singing voice,” Minseok answered robotically. He was glad that Lu Han couldn’t see him right then because he had an uncomfortable frown forming on his face.

“It feels great when you praised me. Even though I was just letting you hear me sing so I could feel better. But it feels much better hearing you liked it,” Lu Han said shyly.

“...Yeah. I’m glad you feel better already.”

Then it was Lu Han’s turn to fell silent. Minseok could hear the boy was holding his breath and let out a long exhale, like he was trying to say something else. So he waited until he heard a most likely forced yawn. “I guess I’m beat right now. I think it has been past midnight already. You’re glad you’ve wrapped the day with my singing voice, right?”

Minseok snorted. “Yeah, right,” he said shortly. Cue another awkward silence.

“Hey, Kim?” Lu Han said finally.

“Hm?”

They went silent again for a moment. “...Goodnight,” Lu Han said to him in a soft hesitating voice.

“Goodnight, Lu.”

And the line went dead. But Minseok couldn’t go back to sleep immediately. After he finished that chem homework an hour later, he began feeling sleepy. In the end, he found himself smiling before closing his eyes to sleep, because despite anything it was a nice day. He got cakes, mind-blowing sex, lovely dinner, and a song. Happy birthday to him.

 

As Minseok recalled the memory of his birthday, he realized that he had felt the exact same way he was feeling this time. He got all uncomfortable again around Lu Han. But that time Lu Han couldn’t see him getting all weird out. And the day after his birthday he pretended like his inner turmoil the night before wasn’t even there because he didn’t want to be found out.

And suddenly he recalled another time he got himself like this. It was when they unintentionally revealed something that was kind of a big deal, and because it was too personal to each other.

Minseok didn’t remember the exact date of the day, but coincidentally it was on April 20th.

 

Lu Han was visiting Minseok’s house uninvited but was let in by the maid without Minseok knowing until after he saw Lu Han standing by the door of the piano room. It was Sunday at around 11am. and Minseok was practicing his own rendition of Ave Maria with the white grand piano when Lu Han walked in and watched him in silent. When Minseok caught the staring boy on the act, Lu Han looked so dumbfounded and mesmerized he didn’t even realized Minseok was staring right back at him while still playing the piece, until seconds later Lu Han got all smug and nonchalant about the way he was staring earlier.

He gave him a round of applause after Minseok ended the piece with flourish.

“What are you doing here? I didn’t recall you said that you were coming today,” Minseok asked the boy by the door.

“Um, surprise?” Lu Han said sheepishly, hand still folded in front of his chest.

“You’re such a weird kid, Lu.”

“Can’t argue with that.” He walked over toward the grand piano and Minseok in the middle of the room. “I didn’t know you play piano in your pastime,” he added while looking at the boy on the piano stool curiously.

Minseok answered by playing another series of short soft melody. “...Yeah. Boring, I know.”

“No, it looks fun. I didn’t know the piece you were playing earlier though, but it was good,” Lu Han motioned Minseok to scoot over so he could sit next to him. “Hi,” Lu Han said while looking at the boy beside him. Minseok raised an eyebrow, and Lu Han just gave him a soft kiss on the lips.

“Definitely weird,” Minseok looked to his front again but kept smiling and he began to play some other random soft tunes. “Anyway, this is not my pastime. I’m practicing before my teacher comes because today is my exam day. And I’m kicking you out after lunchtime.”

“Ah,” Lu Han nodded understandingly. “Are you gonna play the earlier piece? What was it called?”

“You don’t know? I’ll play you from the beginning again, maybe you could recognize it.” Minseok began to play again, while humming the vocal melody.

With this, Lu Han lightened up with recognition and smiled, “Ah. Ave Maria. It sounded pretty different hearing the song with the piano tunes you played earlier.”

“I modified the arrangement a bit with what I think goes well with the tunes. The original piece was pretty simple, but I wanted to impress my teacher so I changed some tunes but still sticking to the original melody,” Minseok explained in the midst of piano playing in the background.

Lu Han looked at him again with what could be described as some soft look. He swayed his body along the soft melody. “It’s good, Kim.”

“Thanks,” Minseok gave him a shy lopsided grin that showed his gums and little teeth. He continued humming the melody and played the piece until it was finished.

Once Minseok finished playing, Lu Han gave him another round of applause and Minseok visibly beamed at him. “It would be so much greater if you sang the lyrics too, you know.”

“I have trouble memorizing the Latin lyrics,” he said sheepishly. “Besides, it’s a piano concerto, not some singing competition.”

“Do you only play classical pieces? Because you’re kinda looked like the type who only listens to classical music.”

“Hey, I’m not that uptight. I like every kinds of music. Especially the ones with beautiful piano-based melody.” and then Minseok began to play the piano intro of some old song. He was so immersed he began to sing along.

> _When I find myself in times of trouble_
> 
> _Mother Mary comes to me_
> 
> _Speaking words of wisdom_
> 
> _Let it be_

Lu Han was full on smiling when he heard Minseok singing while his fingers still flowing to play on the piano key. Both singing and the piano play were so beautiful. Minseok’s singing voice is even softer than his usual talking voice and he seemed careful while singing the song, like how he always was when he did everything, but all in all it was so enchanting.

> _And in my hour of darkness_
> 
> _She is standing right in front of me_
> 
> _Speaking words of wisdom_
> 
> _Let it be_
> 
> _Oh, let it be, let it be_
> 
> _Let it be, yeah, let it be_
> 
> _Whisper words of wisdom_
> 
> _Let it be_

Lu Han hummed along with the song, closing his eyes and completely mesmerized with the beautiful music.

And suddenly Minseok swiftly transitioned his playing and change the tune into the cheerful one. It was an intro to another song. Lu Han recognized the song from the same artist as the previous one.

> _Tatatarataratatata ta-ta_
> 
> _Nanana lalala nanana_
> 
> _Lalalananana lalala-la_
> 
> _Lala don’t know lyrics to this song!_

Lu Han laughed along with Minseok playing the cheerful song while singing gibberish made up lyrics. Long gone was the careful demeanor, and he was much more carefree this time. And Minseok kept playing to the chorus.

> _Ob-la-di ob-la-da life goes on, bra!_
> 
> _Lalala life goes on_
> 
> _Ob-la-di ob-la-da Life goes on, bra!_
> 
> _Lalala life goes on_

And Minseok went back to singing gibberish. Until he went back to the chorus.

They laughed together the whole time Minseok played the song until he ended it nicely. Lu Han laughed and clapped like a child he was and even whooped.

“You do realize that you were just singing for me, right?” Lu Han said with mirth after their rounds of laughter began to die down a little.

“...Dammit!” Minseok cursed himself because what the hell. But he didn’t really mind because how much fun he had with Lu Han. So he ended up smiling despite the realization of his stupidity.

“Well, like I said, what Lu Han wants, Lu Han gets. Deal with it, Kim,” Lu Han looked at the boy beside him with a smug smile.

“Whatever.”

“But seriously, could you be any more cliché, Kim?” Lu Han asked suddenly.

“What do you mean?” Minseok asked back. He absent-mindedly played some melody of the recent pop song he listened to.

“I mean, you’re such a cliché, Kim Minseok. A smart rich boy with a clean-cut appearance, hair styled up and all. Being a wallflower with straight-A honor roll in tow. Always tries hard to impress your parents. And now you’re playing piano so brilliantly. Even your music tastes were kind of old too. I bet somewhere in this house you have a personal library your father made just for you, and you spent most of your time in there all curled up with blanket wrapped around your body,” Lu Han said, still smug because judging by the look Minseok gave him, he was right about all these.

“Don’t you think your rich kid with bad boy kind of attitude is a little bit cliché too?” the shorter boy countered.

“Hey, I am not a bad boy! I am too pure,” Minseok scoffed at this, “And I like to think of myself as a happy-go-lucky kinda guy. And because I’m awesome, you can’t argue with that, you hear me?” Lu Han said defensibly.

“I am arguing how you could call yourself pure when 90% of your so-called innocent mind was filled with perverted thoughts.”

And Lu Han laughed. It was a beautiful sound.

“Yeah. It’s not like you were a virgin before you met me either,” at this Minseok’s eyes widened and his fingers stopped dancing around the piano keys. Lu Han stopped his laughing and look at the boy beside him mirroring the wide eyes. “Don’t tell me...” he trailed off.

Minseok didn’t say anything but his face told everything that the other boy needed to know. Minseok closed his eyes trying not to be bothered and just came clean, but before he could say anything, Lu Han said, “Sorry, I didn’t... Hey, I can’t believe it, you know. You’ve done so well on our first time. I mean, you were amazing. I feel so...” Lu Han stopped talking before he could say anything dumb again. “If it would make you feel any better, it was my first time too,” Lu Han admitted in a shy small voice.

Minseok turned his shocked face to Lu Han. “Don’t patronize me,” he said shortly.

“I’m not lying! You were my first too,” Lu Han said seriously. But Minseok still found it so hard to believe. “I should be the one in disbelief here. I’ve said it that time and I’m saying it again. Even though I have none to compare to, but you were amazing. I’m glad my first time was with you.”

Quickly Minseok looked away from Lu Han because he could feel the heat creeping up to his face. As he looked to his front again, he could still feel the stare Lu Han had on him. He gulped down nervously. He felt really so uncomfortable right then, but he couldn’t help but asked with a strained small voice that was almost a whisper, “Was it really your first time? Not even with a girl?”

“Yes, Kim. Why would I lie about this?” Lu Han said without any hesitation.

“How... how did you take me so well that time? And you... you knew what you were doing too,” Minseok trailed off. He mentally slapped himself because he never stuttered, ever. Damn, he was so uncomfortable he just wanted to bolt out that door, but this was his house and he couldn’t leave Lu Han alone in this room without raising any questions from the maid.

“I could ask you the same! I was so scared to top you that time because I was so afraid of not pleasuring you right for our first time so I took care of myself so it wouldn’t look like I was so nervous,” Lu Han rambled on. “And I knew what I was doing because, you know, porn,” he added sheepishly.

And Minseok couldn’t help but bursting out laughing for that last statement. Lu Han joined the laughter not a second later in relief that he had made Minseok laugh again. He felt like he had dodged a bullet there.

In the midst of their laughing fit, they didn’t hear the knock on the opened door until they saw the maid that was standing there. The maid looked at the two with a fond smile and a little bit of regret that she had to interrupt the laughing boys. But the boys didn’t mind at all.

“I’m sorry to interrupt, but lunch is ready in the dining room, young master,” the maid said with a smile.

“Sure, thank you, noona,” Minseok said warmly, all uncomfortable feeling seemed had been forgotten. He turned to Lu Han who was wiping his eyes, “Are you coming to lunch?”

And then the three could hear a grumble coming from Lu Han’s belly. And the two laughed again. “If you don’t mind having me, I mean,” Lu Han said after the short round of laughter.

“Sure,” Minseok said and got up from the seat. “Wouldn’t want to leave the child starving, right?” he added before walked out of the room and toward the kitchen. Lu Han followed him closely behind.

They ate lunch together like any other time they were eating together. Their ever present teasing banter here and there, never went back to the topic of uncomfortable conversation. It seemed like everything had gone normal once more. Minseok was gradually forgetting about their whole new revelation before.

When they’ve done with lunch, Minseok insisted to see Lu Han to his car and Lu Han seemed reluctant to go home.

“Why can’t I come watch you play piano, Kim?” Lu Han whined while they were walking the long hallway of Minseok’s house.

“Why should you? You’re not my parents. You’re just going to distract me there,” Minseok said airily.

“No I won’t! I promised I’ll just watch in silence and awe,” Lu Han pleaded and blocked Minseok’s way. “Beside, won’t you be happy to have an audience?”

“I have enough audience. My teacher will be there, remember?”

“But I’ll give you standing applause and all that. I’ll even give you a treat and reward later,” Lu Han wiggled his eyebrows greasily. “Come on, I’m sure your teacher won’t mind.”

Minseok contemplated about this. His parents weren’t home because they were on business trip that weekend and won’t go back home until Monday so they can’t see him play that Sunday afternoon. He was just going to play in the large piano room not some concert hall or something, so he didn’t really need any audience. But Lu Han was there and whining and Minseok was weak against anyone’s whining. He sighed in defeat.

“Fine,” he said finally and Lu Han beamed, “But if you get on my nerve or something, I’m throwing you out of the window,” he threatened seriously.

“Promise!” Lu Han drew a cross sign on his chest and put his hand up in oath.

“There’s no saying no with you, really,” Minseok sighed again and turned back to walk to his room.

“What Lu Han wants, Lu Han gets,” the brown haired boy singsonged and followed the smaller boy upstairs.

In his room, Minseok dismissed himself with mumbled, “I’m going to shower.” He went to shower to clear his head a bit. Mentally preparing himself so that he could ace his exam today.

He was glad that his parents got him a piano and a piano teacher when he told them that he wanted to try to play the instrument because he thought the sound of piano playing was nice and calming for him to hear. His mother agreed with him on this and she told him that it would be great if the house could be filled with piano tunes his son played. So the father without any second thought bought a white grand piano and turned one of the study rooms in the house into piano room. Some other time, Minseok would gladly entertain his parents with his playing and singing.

His parents never pushed him to play professionally, but Minseok insisted that his piano teacher could give him exam every once in a while to see how much he improved over the years. So, here he was, preparing himself so that he could prove himself once again that he could do anything he set his mind to.

Minseok finished with his shower and walked into his walk-in closet to dress himself accordingly. He chose a formal suit, colored in midnight blue. He hesitated to go with his favorite white shirt or the pale lavender shirt. At the end of it he chose the lavender shirt and decided on no tie because that might be too much. He walked back to his room to style his hair up as usual. He could see Lu Han looked up from his phone to give him a once over.

“Hot,” the boy on the couch commented when Minseok walked pass him toward the dressing table. He got up to stand behind the shorter boy facing the mirror. Hesitatingly, he draped Minseok from behind and smiled. He could smell the cologne Minseok had just put on, along with the similar aroma of soap and shampoo the black-haired boy used.

“Don’t get any funny idea, Lu,” Minseok warned when Lu Han began kissing his cheek and jaw and neck.

“Why? You still have an hour before your teacher come. Aren’t you nervous?” Lu Han stopped his kissing, but kept himself intact with the shorter boy.

“No, I’m not,” the boy in the suit ignored him and maneuvered himself somewhat to style his hair while still was being in the hold of the clingy child.

“How about just kissing?”

Minseok snorted. “You being you won’t end up with _just kissing_ ,” Minseok rubbed his bottom to Lu Han’s front once teasingly to make a point, in which Lu Han blatantly confirmed with a gasped moan.

“Hey, not fair! If you continued like this, I’ll take you right here right now in front of this mirror. Would you like that?” Lu Han challenged with a low voice.

“I don’t want to ruin the clothes,” Minseok narrowed his eyes to the boy in the mirror who was giving him a hungry stare. “Control your thirst, Lu. We could do it after I finished the exam.”

“Fine,” Lu Han resigned himself. He turned the shorter boy and gave him a long lingering kiss full on the lips which got returned. When they broke the kiss, Minseok looked at him with question in his eyes. “Can’t stop myself to give you one for good luck, Kim,” he smiled that beautiful smile.

Minseok too, can’t stop himself from returning the smile with his usual crooked smile that lately only reserved for Lu Han. With a slight blush adorning his face, he kissed the taller boy once again in short peck, “Thank you.”

They walked side by side toward the piano room. Lu Han was itching to hold Minseok’s hand, but he knew better because the smaller boy wouldn’t like doing it when they could be seen by someone in the house. Before they knew it, they were in the piano room once again and Minseok sat down on the stool, and Lu Han settled himself on the armchair near the bookshelf. He drowned himself in the melody Minseok played perfectly. Even after the teacher came and evaluated Minseok’s play, he still looked at him with dreamy eyes. He gave the standing ovation the boy in midnight blue deserved.

 

When they got back to Minseok’s room, Lu Han took the smaller boy’s hand in his. He kissed on their adjoining hands and looked into Minseok’s eyes in silence. There were that sparks again in the eyes looking at him, and sometimes Minseok wondered if his own eyes could shine as bright as that. He felt warm all over as they were just standing in there in the middle of the room looking into each other’s eyes.

Minseok made the first move to lean into Lu Han for a kiss. He needed a distraction to ignore the funny thing that was going on in his heart just looking at the doe-eyed boy like that, not doing anything. Lu Han returned the kiss so gently Minseok thought that he wouldn’t want this to stop, ever.

“Kim, I—”

“I want you, Lu. Do whatever you want to me,” Minseok cut him off with a hoarse voice courtesy of all that kissing that literally took his breath away.

Lu Han looked at him like he wanted to say something, but he soon complied as he kissed Minseok again, not so gently this time but also not too rough. It was the perfect amount of caring and wanting, and Minseok submitted himself into the taller boy because why should he not when Lu Han made him feel so, so good?

Minseok felt his feet left the ground as Lu Han lifted him like so many times he did before without ever any complain. The kiss never broke because Minseok circled his arms firmly on the brunette’s neck, tongues dancing in uniformed melody of their heavy breathing. He was put down gently on his back on the bed and Lu Han continued kissing him for another good minute before they broke away briefly. Lu Han was rummaging the end table he was already familiar with, and Minseok settled himself better in the middle of the bed and scooted closer to the headboard.

“That suit looks so good on you. Can I rip it off of you?” Lu Han asked hovering over him.

Minseok liked the predatory side of Lu Han that sometimes came out in the times they had some fun. But he didn’t like it if somebody, even if it was Lu Han, messing up with his clothes. “Please, don’t,” he said with an unintentional pout.

Lu Han laughed but not condescending because he understood about these things well. “Fine. Should we put on some music? Because we might get loud.”

These words did something to Minseok and he felt blood rushing in anticipation. “Sure. Do whatever you want, Lu,” he said with a sweet smile.

The brunette smiled into the short kiss before pulling away to push the power button on the remote of Minseok’s speaker. The music that played was random but it also set the mood just right because the music Minseok often played were Lu Han’s favorite too.

They kissed again and again with Lu Han on top of Minseok and he pulled them just enough to discard Minseok’s suit jacket first and then his shirt. He tossed them somewhere on the floor and Minseok didn’t seem to mind too much. His pants and briefs were the next ones to go. He tangled his small fingers in Lu Han’s soft hair when Lu Han started kissing his jaw and neck and collarbones. He stopped on one spot above Minseok’s nipple to suck a mark on it. The tug on his brown hair was completely on Minseok’s mercy and he didn’t stop the ministration and just gave the redness a lingering lick.

Minseok gasped when Lu Han sucked particularly hard on his nipple. He didn’t know where his body he was sensitive at until Lu Han started doing these things to him. Apparently over time Lu Han already knew how to make things good for Minseok, and he was glad for that and always tried his best to reciprocate. He didn’t even knew when the brunette started sneaking his finger into Minseok, so he let out a loud surprised moan and he could feel Lu Han smirked into his pecs.

“Ah—at least do it with warning or something.” Minseok tugged the soft hair again and Lu Han gasped, more because of he was surprised rather than pained.

“And miss the way you scream out of surprise?” Lu Han whispered into his ear.

The brunette settled himself beside Minseok, nibbling his earlobe and jaw for a good long time while still thrusting his fingers in and out of the smaller boy. His breathing got ragged when Lu Han started scissoring the fingers and lightly brushing his prostate, but not hard enough. He turned to his side so he could face Lu Han and kiss him hard.

“Ugh, your clothes,” he mumbled exasperatedly in between the kiss when he needed to touch more of Lu Han.

“Sorry. Just...” Lu Han pulled out his fingers and got up and Minseok whined at the loss.

He discarded the clothes quickly and Minseok could see that he hadn’t even been half-hard. So he took the liberty to pulled Lu Han back down beside him and started squeezing his member while continued kissing him hard. The brunette put his left hand to circle Minseok’s shoulder while the other hand continued working the same way it did before. Minseok lifted his left leg to settle it back on Lu Han’s waist and started rubbing their erections together with his hand. They could hear their constant moan as their body rocking together and began moving desperately to feel some more.

When Lu Han started to crook the fingers to hit the prostates, Minseok moaned so loud that he worried if the music in the background could drown out the noise.

“Come on, Lu. More,” he blurted.

Lu Han pulled himself out of Minseok’s hold with his fingers still thrusting in and out well-aimed to hit the sweet spot over and over again. He turned Minseok on his back and hovered above him again to suck on the thighs, leaving mark on each one, before taking Minseok’s whole into his mouth. Minseok cried out another loud moan before coming back into his sense.

“No, we can’t. It’s—” the words died in Minseok’s throat but Lu Han knew what he meant. He didn’t stop though, just continued bobbing his head, trailing along with his tongue. “Lu... if you continue doing that... I’m gonna—oh God!” he came hard before finishing his words. He began panicking in the midst of pleasure wave but Lu Han reach out his hand to hold and let him know it was alright and continued sucking him off until he finished.

Minseok looked up to the other boy. “That was—”

“Good. Really good,” Lu Han finished for him. He licked his lips on point and grinned when Minseok put an arm over his eyes.

“Oh God,” he whimpered in embarrassment, but still smiled just because.

“I don’t know why we didn’t do that more often, Min.”

Minseok took a good look at the boy over him. He saw flush all over his body, hair all messed up, lips blown and red, body glistening with sweat and there was a bit of cum trickling down his chest, and an unmissed rock-hard erection that hadn’t gotten enough action. He turned over, head on a pillow, knees bent, ass up and ready. “Come on, Lu. Put it in,” he offered himself to the boy.

The brunette wrapped his hand around Minseok’s chest from behind and turned his head and gave him a passionate kiss without words, letting the smaller boy tasting himself. Minseok closed his eyes bracing himself of what was to come while still continuing kissing the other boy. Lu Han guided his cock with the other hand and started entering the hot and tight hole. Minseok bite the taller boy’s lips lightly as the hard member dragged into him until he bottomed out. They break the connection of their mouths when Lu Han started thrusting in and out slowly, building his own slow pace for both of their pleasure. Minseok buried his face into the pillow when he felt like screaming again everytime Lu Han brushed his prostate just slightly.

The drag was unbearable but Lu Han seemed to set this pace because Minseok was just starting to get hard again. He caressed Minseok’s body just to get the soft feeling under his fingertips, and he started to trace his tongue along Minseok’s spine. He breathed hot puff of air on Minseok’s ear to whisper, “Is it good? Should I keep going like this? Or do you want me to go faster?”

The words sent shiver all over his body, his cock had became so hard once again, and he was enjoying the slow drag, but he wanted more. He moaned once he pulled out of Lu Han to flip them around. He liked seeing Lu Han in the middle of their steamy moment, their bodies glistened and flushed pink, their hard members glistening with pre-cum, mouths opened ever so slightly to catch on their ragged breath. Minseok pressed their bodies together with him on top, and kissed Lu Han once again. Lu Han didn’t object even when he still couldn’t properly breathe, and when Minseok sank down on him he grunted in their kiss.

They broke their kiss to look into each other’s eyes, full of lust but with a flicker of caring to make them both feel good, while Minseok continued bobbing his hips up and down. He upped his pace and buried his head onto Lu Han’s chest with Lu Han tangling his fingers in his sweaty black hair. Their constant moaning and grunting filled the room with the faint music that they couldn’t even hear anymore in the background. It was just the two of them, becoming one.

“God, Min, you’re so good. So good,” Lu Han chanted over and over again.

And Minseok was glad.

And then he came for the second time before he pulled out of Lu Han. Still riding on his pleasure, he squeezed Lu Han’s cock furiously and hopefully at the same pace as before and Lu Han came into his hand not too long after that.

“Tissue,” Minseok mumbled tiredly after plopping down on his back beside the other boy and Lu Han silently reached out to take some from the box on the end table.

He cleaned the stickiness on their bodies and threw away the tissue off somewhere.

They didn’t mutter any other words, only the loud music and the sound of their heavy breathing were filling the room for some minutes. Lu Han pulled Minseok into his arm and kissed his temple. “You’re amazing,” he whispered.

And Minseok’s calming heartbeat was picking up the pace once again. But he ignored it because he didn’t want the moment to be ruined.

“I’m amazing, too. I guess you can say that I’m better than porn,” Lu Han continued.

And the moment was ruined. They burst out laughing in their tightened hold of each other.

 

Maybe it was because the revelations in the piano room about being each other’s firsts. Maybe it was because suddenly Minseok realized how Lu Han took care of him so much everytime they have sex. Maybe it was because Lu Han’s inappropriate comments everytime Minseok tried to ignore the funny feeling Lu Han’s actions and words did to him. But he really couldn’t stop noticing every little thing Lu Han did to him for the past eight months.

Then he got a bit lightheaded thinking about that. Lu Han was so good to him, but he didn’t know if he was ready to put himself out more to the doe-eyed boy. He liked the way things were. It was nice acting like friends who helped each other out to explore each other’s body to give themselves the right amount of pleasure, even though they were not even labeled themselves as friends. But to think about something more, with _feeling_ , just the thought of it was something too bizarre and complicated for Minseok.

 


	5. Hook

 

Three days later after him and Lu Han parted not so amicably in Minseok’s bedroom, he was ready to submit his piece to Junmyeon.

“How was it going with Lu Han?” Junmyeon asked him when Minseok entered the club’s room.

“Here,” he said simply, giving the chief editor a thumb drive containing his words based on the interview he did.

Junmyeon took the drive and put it next to his laptop, seemingly not interested much and rather interviewed Minseok about the interview with the soccer team captain. “So, did you two get along well? I mean you two are rich boys and maybe you had connection there. And Lu Han is so good looking, isn’t he? Well, he’s not that tall basketball captain with his cool resting bitch face, but Lu Han has that soft and warm feeling around him, doesn’t he?” Junmyeon uncharacteristically rambled on.

“What’s with you?” Minseok asked in annoyance. He tried not to put much thought about how Lu Han didn’t contact him in three days. This was the longest they weren’t in contact with each other. Usually he would be spammed with Lu Han’s bizarre hobby of sending him picture of fat cats even though they didn’t meet, but this time nothing came, nada.

“Nothing. I was just curious. You know, curiosity is good, it enhances your intelligence or something.”

“Yes, but what’s that have to do with me and Lu Han? Do you expect me to be friends with him after one encounter? And how do you know I’m rich?” he asked incredulously.

“Well, don’t you think I won’t notice your driver picking you up at the intersection near the bus stop? That is a nice shiny car, by the way. And Lu Han always drives that fancy sports car to school and parks it on the parking lot near the soccer field. The windows were tinted so heavily but I could see him getting in and out of the car,” Junmyeon explained.

“Wow, I didn’t know you would know about these things, Junmyeon,” Minseok lamented.

“Curiosity,” Junmyeon said simply. “I might not ask that much, but I observed.”

Minseok was silent. He started questioning how much Junmyeon knew about what went around the school. He wouldn’t know about him and Lu Han, right? With the way he was asking Minseok about Lu Han might support that premise. But being more careful might not hurt if he didn’t want the whole school to know about them. Who knew how much more of observant pupils this school has?

“So, he’s dreamy, isn’t he?” Junmyeon asked again.

Minseok made a face at this. “I’m not having this conversation with you.”

 

It was almost two weeks of no contact, and Minseok was constantly debating what he should do about them. He didn’t consider himself a sexual dependent person, but days of no action could drive him over the edge too. It was worse when he constantly reminded of how Lu Han had treated him right over the time, and much, much worse when the uncertainty was still clouding his mind this time.

It was a Tuesday when he got the text from Lu Han saying “ _Locker room, two hours after school ends._ ” There would be no soccer practice that day, Minseok knew. And the other teammates of Lu Han’s weren’t too avid to practice alone outside their practice hours, unlike Lu Han who did it ever so secretly. Minseok decided there would be no harm in meeting him later that day. He could kill the time in the library, maybe getting his homework done there.

When Minseok entered the locker room, he was attacked against the door by the brunette. Apparently he was not the only one yearning for this physical contact between the two. He could hear the click of the lock sound in the midst of all that kissing, something Lu Han always swiftly did everytime they were in this position.

Both of them seemed so dazed when they broke apart. It was too soon, because they knew that they could go for hours if they wanted to, but Minseok didn’t say anything about it.

“Kim, we need to talk,” Lu Han said with apparent determination.

“What about?”

“Us.”

Minseok snapped from his dazed state. He knew that this would be coming sooner or later. He looked anywhere else but the doe-eyed boy. But Lu Han was having none of it, as he put his hands on Minseok’s cheeks to make the smaller boy looked at him.

“What are we?” he asked the hardest question Minseok ever heard.

Minseok kept mum. He could be just nonchalant about all this and just simply said the term _friends_. But he knew that was not the answer Lu Han wanted.

“Why are you not my boyfriend?” Lu Han asked again.

He could hear the painful longing from the tone the taller boy used. His heart was doing these funny things again, and it was not pleasant at all.

“Do you hate me?” Lu Han continued. “Do you even like having me around?”

Minseok closed his eyes because Lu Han’s gaze was burning him.

“Call me selfish, but I want to know you better, Minseok.” The black-haired boy opened his eyes in a snap. Lu Han never called him by his full-given first name, aside from the very first and only attempt he used when they first met and Lu Han was drunk pronouncing his name so bizarrely. “And I want you to know all about me,” Lu Han continued.

They stared at each other for a half minute before Minseok cowered. He took Lu Han’s hands off of his face and put them down lightly. He said his silent _‘I’m sorry’_ because his tongue was tied, before turning back and got away from that locker room.

 

Later that night, still in his uniform sprawling on his bed just staring at nothing on the ceiling, he got a text from Lu Han. _“I guess I have my answers now. I’m sorry. I’ll give you some space to make you realize what the two of us hold the meaning to._ ”

Lu Han might be said sorry, but he might as well be cursing Minseok with that text. He closed his eyes feeling the unreasonable tears about to be formed in the corner of his eyes. He deleted the text, just like he usually did after receiving texts from Lu Han. Swallowing hard of nothingness, he was willing himself to sleep early, not even bothering to change his clothes or having his dinner.

 

As it turned out, the space was being given even until they became high school seniors. Minseok aced the exam with ease like he was unaffected by anything, and he could see from the junior’s ranking on the announcement board that Lu Han was also doing so well as he was on the second while Minseok on the first rank.

When the senior year started, he wasn’t unfazed when he was put in the same class with Lu Han, because apparently he really was cursed. They were in 12-2 together for their last year of school.

“Minseok!” someone called his name loudly when he was walking into the classroom.

He caught Lu Han’s eyes who were awkwardly avoiding holding their gaze as if it burned him. He quickly found the owner of the voice and walked pass Lu Han to go to his friend in the back.

“Hey, Junmyeon. I guess we’re classmates, huh?” he said awkwardly in small voice.

“Yes. And Jongdae too. But he hasn’t come yet. He always comes in last minute,” Junmyeon answered. “There’s an empty seat here,” the boy offered.

“Sure.”

He actually didn’t want to sit in the back, because that would be mean he could see everyone in front of him, and that included Lu Han who had taken a seat in the middle of the class. But he thought he could make do of this because the positioning of the class seat would be decided by their homeroom teacher in the first period.

When the teacher came in right after bespectacled Jongdae stepped into the class with a sheepish smile to the familiar faces, the homeroom started. They decided on that semester’s class president by voting, and arranged the seat for the first trimester. Minseok ended up sitting by the window in the third row, Junmyeon in the first row, Jongdae in the seat behind Lu Han who was sitting in the same row as Minseok only on the other end. The first day of senior year was running smoothly without so much thought.

 

It continued on for the following weeks. Minseok still greeted Lu Han awkwardly when they met each other in the class with other classmates around. But when they were passing by each other in an empty hallway, there was no greeting at all between the two of them, as they constantly avoided the gaze of the other.

Lu Han still hang out with his old classmates and his soccer team, while Minseok stick close to Junmyeon and Jongdae in the classroom. The situation between the two of them was a bit uncomfortable and too awkward, but they still put up on act like they usually did.

Someday Minseok caught Lu Han walking in with so much weight on his feet, and there were dark circle forming underside his drooping eyes, with frown and wince everytime there was a loud noise, a clear sight of his hangover state. When he heard someone asked the brunette if he was okay, he’d hear the “Yes, I’m okay. I was just pulling an all-nighter on the homework.”

And that went on twice in the two weeks. When the third one he saw Lu Han in the same burning out state, he really wanted to ask the boy if everything was really alright or if he needed anything, but he decided the better of it. It had nothing to do with him, he kept telling himself.

But when the taller boy skipped lunch for the third time that week, he went to the cafeteria and bought two packages of mocha bread and a box of strawberry milk and discreetly put it on the sleeping boy’s desk before ran away back to the cafeteria to eat with his friends. Deep down, he really couldn’t bear the sight of Lu Han without his usual smile and energy, so he hoped somehow Lu Han could pull himself together.

After a month and half of acting like everything was alright, one day Minseok was walking alone back to the class after his short lunch when he was pulled from the empty hallway to the empty restroom and the door locked behind him. Lu Han was kissing his neck and jaw, and Minseok really couldn’t think of anything, because as hard as he had to admitted, he really missed this. So he let Lu Han do what he wanted to do. When Lu Han get behind him in front of the bathroom mirror, he unbuckled Minseok’s belt and let down his pants and boxer to free his soft cock and gave squeezes with his hand. Minseok let out a soft moan, and Lu Han put his other hand over his mouth so that he won’t get loud. He kissed the back of his neck, while still giving him a nice hand job. With a few more fervent strokes, Minseok came onto the taller boy’s hand while gripping the sink in front of him with both of his hands. Minseok was ready to turn around and return the favor, but Lu Han zipped back his pants and washed his hand on the sink and already out of the door before Minseok even came down from his high without so much of a kiss goodbye.

There was no text afterwards, and they continued their façade like nothing happened at all. Minseok decided not to think too much about this. Maybe this is what Lu Han wanted, and he played along with it like he usually did.

The second time he was pulled by the taller boy again, he braced himself for another attack. Lu Han was kissing his neck and jaw again as he pushed him into a bathroom stall. He cleaned the toilet cover before he put Minseok down to sit and pulled down his pants and boxer. He licked the limp member before taking him whole into his mouth. Minseok could feel his cock hardened in the hot cavern of Lu Han’s mouth, and he put a hand over his own mouth as the brunette bobbing his head in and out his member. He really wanted to see Lu Han, but Lu Han was closing his eyes tightly, so when Lu Han started sucking particularly hard, he swallowed his moan and closing his own eyes. He came in Lu Han’s hands again, and before he knew it, he was already left alone again.

It continued like this for two weeks, without any words, no kisses on the lips, and Minseok always accepted it. It was either in the restroom at breaks, or the locker room after school ended and there was no practice that day. When Minseok tried to approach the taller boy alone, he always ran away and avoided him before Minseok even opened his mouth to speak his name. Minseok thought that he was going to be insane because Lu Han never let him touch him.

 

Minseok fell asleep on the lunch break because he was exhausted over everything, over the piling homework, over studying for the upcoming mid-term, over the club activities, and of course over the enigma that was Lu Han. The classroom was empty when he drifted off from his sleep, but still closing his eyes. There were footsteps approaching his desk. He wasn’t facing the window beside his desk, so he could feel a towering figure beside his chair within his closed eyelids. It was silent for a few seconds before he felt a hand brushing his hair lightly. He unconsciously frowned, still closing his eyes, and the movement on his hair halted momentarily. After a few second, the petting continued and he relaxed to the touch. Somehow he knew who it was, because the touch was so familiar.

He wanted to hold Lu Han’s hand, but he knew with the way Lu Han had been avoiding his touch, it would do him no good. After a while, the hand moved to caress his cheek lightly before it retreated back and the footsteps was walking away. He didn’t dare to open his eyes lest he would see Lu Han on the other side of the row, but when the class started to be filled up before the bell rang, he opened his eyes and sat up slowly like he was just woken up from his nap. He smiled to no one in particular and out of the corner of his eye, he could feel the stare from the other side of the row.

 

With the way Lu Han was acting those days, he couldn’t help but reiterating Lu Han’s questions that day in the locker room.

_What are we?_

_Why are you not my boyfriend?_

He didn’t forget about it even after months passed. He wanted to know the answers too. But the answers were actually already a given, he just didn’t have the guts to admit the well-known answers himself.

 

“Aren’t you coming to lunch?” Minseok asked Junmyeon who was still sitting even when the class slowly filtered out.

“I’m going to finish my homework for the next period,” Junmyeon answered solemnly.

“Why didn’t you finish your homework before you go to school? You’re getting sloppy, Junmyeon-ah,” Jongdae said.

“Do you want to see mine?” Minseok offered.

“That would be great, Minseok!” the club president said with a wide thankful smile.

Minseok pulled out his physics workbook out of his bag and gave it to Junmyeon who was ready to jump and hug him. Thankfully he didn’t.

“We’ll bring you some food,” Jongdae said before walked away with Minseok before Junmyeon really lurched into them and hugged them with all his might.

They could still hear the loud “Thanks!”

When Minseok and Jongdae came back to class with full belly and a bag of pastries and banana milk that Junmyeon liked, Junmyeon was still writing down his homework while Lu Han was beside him, and had pulled another chair into Junmyeon’s desk. He seemed to be explaining to Junmyeon about the solution of the physics problems, while Junmyeon was nodding and writing in understanding.

“Joonie, here’s your food~ Hey, Lu Han!” Jongdae said casually, putting down the food and milk in front of the sitting boys while Minseok tittered around nervously. Lu Han replied the greeting with the same casual tone.

“Thanks! You guys are the best. I’m almost done here,” Junmyeon said and he continued writing down the last solution.

Minseok and Lu Han fell silent, saved by Jongdae’s loud shuffling around the plastic bag to open one of the pastries before prodding Junmyeon to open his mouth to eat while he was still writing. Lu Han watched with awe as Jongdae feed the other boy without Junmyeon taking his eyes off of his workbook. Meanwhile the cat-eyed boy just stood there awkwardly, trying to make as little noise as he could. He decided to pull out another chair to sit on the other side of his friend and looked at what he wrote down.

“Do you have any question about the answers?” Minseok whispered loud enough to break Junmyeon’s concentration a bit.

“Well, no. Your answers are very clear. And Lu Han had explained a few things too. As expected of you two,” Junmyeon smiled.

Minseok returned the smile and gave the boy a pat on his back.

Junmyeon finished his homework and one of the pastries quickly. He sipped on the milk before he handed Lu Han another pastries. “As a thank you,” he said. Lu Han took it willfully and gave his thanks.

He opened another package and prodded Minseok to take a bite and did the same to Jongdae. “How much do I owe you guys?” he asked as he was munching his own bites.

“Well, it’s a treat from the rich boy here. He said you’re getting sloppy and you need to pull yourself together,” Jongdae answered.

“It’s true,” Minseok added shortly.

“Yeah, sorry. I was too caught up in perfecting the next week’s issue, but I finished everything though,” the chief editor of the school paper said.

“And I thought I’ve told you that you should divide your work with me or the others so you weren’t burdened too much,” Minseok stated simply.

“I know, I know. As freakishly meticulous you are about things, I still wanted to handle things my way too. I’m a sucker for that,” Junmyeon said apologetically. “I can’t wait to hand this position to one of the junior, though. I think they are ready.”

“Sure. They’ve done a great job so far. They’ve already grown with their writing and editing and organizing. You should give them better chance and let yourself be freer now that we’re seniors,” Jongdae voiced his opinion.

“Yes. I’m thinking about two juniors that would be perfect for the job. I’ll encourage them and we’re going to decide by vote.”

The other two of the school papers personnel nodded in understanding. Junmyeon had finished his pastries.

“So, Lu Han,” Jongdae started, the said boy snapped his head up to the voice owner, “What do you think about the school paper? Is it decent? Is it fun to read or is it too boring?”

“I like reading it. It’s the perfect amount of important information and refreshing pieces about some school profiles. Even the extras were nice. It’s absolutely decent and definitely fun to read. I read your published paper all the time,” the brunette said.

“Really? You don’t know how much your feedback means to us. Some students didn’t appreciate it enough because they think our work was too boring. No juicy gossip whatsoever in them they said,” Junmyeon ruefully said.

“Yeah, well. Some people are just too thirsty of someone else’s personal affair I guess. Privacy is to be respected, not to be breached unwillingly,” Lu Han concluded.

“Amen to that,” Jongdae said.

“I like you, Lu Han,” Junmyeon blurted making the three boys looked at him confused. “You’re smart and get along with us well. I’m glad we’re classmates in our final year.”

“Are you confessing to him right now?” Jongdae asked with a laugh.

“Nope. I was just thinking that Lu Han would make a good company and friend,” Junmyeon shrugged.

Minseok caught Lu Han’s brief glance to him before they both looked away, and then he laughed his usual small laugh. Minseok snapped his head back to see that. It had been a while after all, and he could feel he was smiling to himself.

“Okay, but you should’ve seen yourself. Your laughing was kinda bizarre,” Jongdae teased and they laughed together.

“I’ve been told that many times before. I’m going to take that as a compliment,” he said smugly full of mirth. “By the way, I’m glad I could be a good company.”

Jongdae gave him a high five while Junmyeon raised his bottle of milk and they continued chatting like old friends until the bell rang and the physics teacher came in.

 

As it turned out, being classmates with Junmyeon, Jongdae, and Lu Han was not what he thought it would be. Before, Junmyeon and Jongdae never pried him for personal information, always respected each other professionally. But after they became classmates, Minseok couldn’t avoid some questions about himself. He still clammed up occasionally and the two wouldn’t push him too much, but sometimes he revealed something about himself to the two. And he didn’t feel all that uncomfortable.

Lu Han also got along well with them after that time with the pastries and homework. Sometimes Lu Han would join them for lunch if they spotted him entering the cafeteria alone. They had small chat over everything and laughed together when someone would crack a joke. It was all too familiar of a scene. Minseok and Lu Han never talked to each other alone, save for the well needed greeting if they were around anybody else, and talked in the same conversation they both were part of with their other friends.

One day, Minseok was walking alone to the cafeteria when he was pulled into one of the locked restrooms again. He was willingly pushed to sit down on the clean toilet lid when Lu Han pulled down his pants and briefs and gave his member a few strokes. Minseok got a hold of himself bracing Lu Han’s shoulders and stifled a moan that threatened to come out. When he was hard enough, Lu Han rolled a condom onto the erection before he pulled down his own pants and revealed his own hardened leaking member. Lu Han held on to Minseok’s shoulders as he sank down easily onto him. Apparently Lu Han had already prepped himself before, so the drag wasn’t burning both of them. They moan at the feeling they both missed.

Minseok glanced up to the brunette on his lap, who shut his eyes closed in pleasure as he bobbed himself up and down. Minseok gave himself away into resolve, against better judgment, he put up his hands that has been on Lu Han’s waist the whole time to circle the brunette’s neck and pulled him down for the long awaited kiss. Lu Han tensed for a while, but eventually relished himself when he pushed his tongue into the other’s mouth. They kissed each other like this for a long time, and when Minseok spilled into the condom still inside Lu Han, they broke away as he buried his head in the taller shoulder. Not long after that Lu Han clenched around Minseok’s limp member as he came onto his own hand.

They kissed again after holding gaze into each other’s eyes for a minute, and the kiss was not as rough as before, but still with the same amount of passion. Minseok really wanted to talk to him about all this, erase the frown from Lu Han’s face and hold him tight and kiss him softly so that he would smile at him again. But he thought that the kiss was just enough for both of them this time, rather than empty words with no meaning. If Minseok wanted to say something to Lu Han, he really had to mean it.

 

“So, do you guys ever been in a relationship? Are you in a relationship right now?” Jongdae said with his usual carefree tone, like the start of the conversation didn’t just make two of his friends choke on the water they were drinking.

“I have. But I realized it wasn’t really all sparkly-dandy as I used to think. I’m putting myself off of relationship until I graduate,” Junmyeon said unaffected.

“High school?” Jongdae asked.

“University.”

“Wow, you’re a tough cookie. But I have to agree with you. Relationship is too exhausting. Emotionally, physically, and financially,” Jongdae said casually.

When Minseok and Lu Han were finished with their short coughing fit, Junmyeon asked Lu Han, “What about you? With a face like that, you sure had broken many girls’ hearts by now. Do you have a girlfriend or _girlfriends_ hidden somewhere in the city?”

“What the hell, Junmyeon? I only had been tried dating once, and it was not at all serious enough to be called a romantic relationship,” Lu Han said, risking a quick glance to Minseok that went unnoticed by the three.

“It’s a little bit hard to believe, but I trust you. You could’ve had your pick with the way girls are looking at you,” Jongdae said. “Oh ho, don’t you give me that adorable confused face. I’ve seen the way the girls obviously ogling you out in the soccer match you’ve played. Their screams when you’ve scored a goal were deafening.”

Lu Han was blushing furiously but dismissed it away when Jongdae and Junmyeon commented on him about it. “Well, maybe it’s not girls that I’m searching for,” he muttered softly.

“What?!” the two said loudly in unison, causing some of the head turned on their direction in the cafeteria. Minseok slapped their heads to quiet down.

Seeing the two winced in pain, Lu Han laughed loudly. He gave a thankful look to Minseok, who quickly ducked his head down.

“You mean you like boys?” Jongdae whispered in the table.

“Maybe. Is that a problem?” Lu Han said uncertainly.

“No. it’s just... thanks for telling us that, you know. It means you trusted us enough,” Junmyeon said in encouragement.

“Yeah. Totally. We won’t make anything weird out of this,” Jongdae added.

Minseok hummed in agreement when the heads turned on him, not daring to say another word.

“But how do you know that you... you know, gay?” Junmyeon asked curiously.

“I don’t know. Maybe because I might have interest in some guy,” Lu Han answered casually.

“Who is it?” Jongdae piped up.

“I said maybe, Jongdae. Maybe.”

“Did you mean that you’re not too sure about this?” the bespectacled boy asked again.

“Maybe,” Lu Han shrugged.

“Fine. Don’t tell. I don’t care,” Jongdae said in mock exasperation.

Meanwhile Minseok was too occupied in counting the rice on his bowl. He didn’t even eat, and he never looked up once within the conversation. He felt so uncomfortable and out of place.

“What about you, Minseok? Anything you’d like to share?” Junmyeon prodded.

Minseok closed his eyes to school his expression and voice. “Hmm... no,” he answered simply, still avoiding everyone’s eyes on him.

“Yeah well, Minseok hated people. He’s such a scary person beneath that cute face. The way he looks at someone is like piercing right to the soul. Even the way he smiles sometime looks so evil. Do you remember Baekhyun always winced or mumbled ‘Minseok is so scary!’ over and over again when Minseok was just glaring at him?” Jongdae said.

“It’s not that I _hate_ people. I’m just not that... comfortable around them. And Baekhyun is so annoying, he deserved all the glare in the world. Tell me you never had the urge to just punch him in the face, because I bet you can’t,” the cat-eyed boy suddenly turned chatty as he defended himself.

“But everyone loves someone of your character. You just need someone to break down that wall for you. If they could like and deal with your usual—forgive my language— _bitchy_ attitude, there would be no question that they’ll fall in love even more with what you really are inside,” Junmyeon said.

“Huh... I don’t know how to respond to that.”

“Just be yourself, Minseok,” Jongdae made a show of reaching Minseok’s hand and squeezed it tight.

“Ugh, such a sap,” Minseok slapped the hand away and ruffled the bespectacled boy’s hair playfully. They grinned at each other, and at the corner of his eyes he could feel Lu Han was boring stare at them. He cleared out his throat, “Didn’t you said that this guy over here is _dreamy_ , Junmyeon?” he turned to Junmyeon as he pointed his finger to Lu Han who got wide-eyed.

“Hey, that came out of nowhere!” Junmyeon spluttered.

They laughed at Junmyeon’s attempt to defend himself. It was nice how the friendship between the four boys turned out to be, with how comfortable they were teasing each other. It was almost like they knew each other since forever. Almost.

 


	6. Refrain

 

The autumn rain poured as soon as Minseok stepped into his house. He was retreating back to his room after greeting the maid who opened the door for him. As he passed his father’s study and saw him reading a book on the desk, he knocked softly and smiled at him. “Father, I’m home.”

“Hey, son,” he looked up to the smiling boy and returned the smile. “Is it raining outside?” he wondered like he had just realized the sound of raining because he was too immersed in the book he was reading.

“Yes, Father. I had just come in when it was started raining.”

“Good for you. I know how much you hated getting soaked in the rain,” his father said to him with a knowing look.

Minseok smiled in embarrassment. “Well, you’re home early, Father.”

“Yes, I am. Your mother and I had plan for tonight. I’m guessing she’s on her way home now. She had work piling up for the past few days, but she had managed to finish everything today.”

“Ah, yes. I’ll greet her when she comes in. I hope you enjoy and have fun with your plan tonight. I’m going to my bedroom. See you later, Father.” Minseok bowed slightly and smiled at his father who dismissed him with a wave and the same smile.

He changed out of his uniform for a snug red sweater and khaki. It was a bit cold, so he didn’t open his bedroom window. Besides, it was raining anyway, so he settled on the windowsill seat that faced the gate of his house. He drew his knees to his chest and looking out at nothing. The road was almost empty, just water puddles everywhere as the downpour still hitting the ground steadily. The front garden of his house was meticulously taken care of as there was no stray leaf like it should have been with the autumn came around. He pulled up a blanket over his curled up body to get more comfortable.

He put his chin on his knees as his thoughts drifted off from the view. He thought about his school life. He was doing well, the midterm had passed and he was positive of what the outcome would be. He hoped his friends were doing well too because they had had not just one or two study sessions in the library for the past few weeks. He was glad that the midterm had passed so he wouldn’t have to deal with Jongdae’s whine or Junmyeon’s stressful look anymore. Meanwhile Lu Han...

Well, Lu Han and he were... he didn’t know what they’ve become. They’ve talked when Jongdae and Junmyeon were around, but they still didn’t talk much when they were alone. Lu Han never texted him often on daily basis like he used to. And secretly, they still did what they used to do when no one was around. Lu Han often pulled him into an empty restroom or deserted locker room to have sex. And sometimes, when Minseok were searching for a book in the library at their study session, Lu Han would pull him into the blind side between the racks where no one would come and they would kiss for a long time until they’ve run out of breath. But that was about it. And somehow it was still felt off.

There were no more hangouts to eat together at some restaurant or sleepover at some hotel and Lu Han never came over to his house again, and so was Minseok who never went to Lu Han’s penthouse again. The maid might’ve noticed Lu Han’s absence the past few months, but she never said anything about it.

But they were still doing things to each other in secret and hope that the other wouldn’t notice. When Minseok saw Lu Han came into class with hangover or exhaustion which he disguised so poorly, he would get him food and his favorite strawberry milk and left it on his desk while he was fast asleep on his desk at lunchtime. And he got the feeling that Lu Han knew it was him who did that, but Lu Han never said anything about it. When it was Minseok who passed out on his desk, he would feel the familiar stroke on his hair and cheek everytime he came back from his unconscious state but still closing his eyes because he didn’t want it to stop. Later when the class was slowly filing up, he woke up once again to Jongdae and Junmyeon and Lu Han who would come to him and shoved him some mocha bread and canned coffee.

The other thing he had noticed was Lu Han often came to his house, but never gone past the gate. He would spot the familiar blue sports car parked outside the tall wall of his house gate. The car window was tinted so heavily, but so was his bedroom window, so he could look out and watch what the other was doing. But Lu Han never got out of his car. Sometimes when he was reading alone in the balcony and the familiar blue car stopped at the same spot, he would pretend that he didn’t see it and just continued reading. He wanted to call out to Lu Han and just told him to get inside, but he didn’t know what he would do once they faced each other.

 

_What are we?_

_Why are you not my boyfriend?_

_Do you hate me?_

_Do you even like having me around?_

The old questions were still haunting him. They were friends, the statement alone had gone without saying. They were not boyfriends because Minseok was too much of a coward who didn’t want to get too emotionally involved with the other boy. Minseok didn’t hate Lu Han, how could he? Minseok liked having Lu Han around, because Lu Han was so good to him and Lu Han was smart and funny and so patient, he didn’t think he deserved Lu Han at all.

He liked Lu Han. He just wasn't ready to admit it out loud. Afraid to shatter everything they had, even if it was already broken anyway. He didn’t know if he wanted to fix it. What if he opened up to Lu Han only to get his heart broken? Not that Lu Han was the type to break any heart, but he just couldn’t erase the doubt. What if it was him who would break Lu Han’s heart?

He liked Lu Han. The adorably stupid way he laugh, the sparkle in his eyes, the soft whisper, the gentle touch, he could go on at all of the things he liked about Lu Han. Everytime he closed his eyes he could see and feel Lu Han. He missed the Lu Han he was first met, who shared equally incredible moment for the both of them, who could crack a joke and tease him out of nowhere just to make him laugh. He missed Lu Han who would rile him up and comfort him like he just wanted Minseok to focus on him only.

He liked Lu Han. And he missed him everytime. And it was much worse this time, because they were so close, yet so far.

When he looked out of the window again, the rain was still heavily pouring down. There was a car passing the road in front of his house. He thought it was his mother’s, but he could saw the blue beneath the entire heavy downpour, and it stopped at the same spot. He waited to gather himself into the resolve.

Minseok got up quickly on his feet and went out the door. He picked an umbrella and put on his boots before he went into the rain with the umbrella covering his head. He walked through the garden quickly, and went past the gate into the direction of where the blue car parked. Lu Han could see him walking toward him, but the car didn’t move. He tried to pull the passenger’s door and found it wasn’t locked. He got in and sat down beside the other boy, throwing his umbrella to the backseat. They were still, not talking or moving, just staring into the rain in front of them.

“Han...” Minseok started.

It was Lu Han who pulled him to close the distance between them. They kissed gently at first because they were both relieved to be in this state. Minseok climbed off the passenger seat into Lu Han’s lap, so they could be so much closer. The touch was long awaited as Minseok kissed the brunette deeply, ignoring the shiver of his body from the rain he walked pass before. Both of them knew what this meant, and Lu Han couldn’t help the tears that escaping his eye.

“Why are you crying, Han? I’m sorry,” Minseok said looking at the boy with glassy eyes, thumbing the tears away and caressed his cheeks.

“No, _I’m_ sorry. I realized that I was the one who asked to keep our relationship a secret in the first place. It was a dick move, I know, and maybe that was why you didn’t want us to be something more. I was stupid to keep it a secret because I thought that was what you wanted after that night. But I was never ashamed of the fact that I like you. I want you to know that, Min,” Lu Han was looking straight to his eyes. If Minseok could measure how much Lu Han meant by that, he was sure it would be a hundred percent for the determination in his eyes alone.

“I admit, I always liked our little secret, it was something I could cherish everytime I’m with you. Maybe it was the way I acted, as I was a bit too private for my own good, that made you came up with that decision at first. But I realized I always like being around you. And maybe I always took us for granted that I always ignore the glaringly obvious thing the way my heart beating for you, the way I get comfortable around you since day one, the way I’m feeling so warm everytime you hold me. I’m sorry for what I’ve done to you that day in the locker room. I should’ve come to you sooner. I should’ve come back to you that instant before you slipped away. I like you, Lu Han. I’ll never let you go ever again.” He kissed Lu Han gently to make up all the emotional exhaustion they both felt the past few months.

“I like you, so, so much. So much I think I might as well be in love with you,” upon seeing the smaller boy widened his eyes at this, Lu Han spluttered, “I mean, I like you. Let’s settle with _like_ , for now. I would want to be with you, Minseok.”

“I thought we were both with each other the whole time,” Minseok cocked his head innocently, obviously teasing the other boy.

“You know what I mean.”

Minseok chuckled when Lu Han chuckled. It was nice to be like this again. And Minseok felt so, so much lighter than he had ever been.

“Let’s start over.” Minseok put his hands on Lu Han’s as he looked into the honey brown orbs, there was that sparkle again. “Hey, I’m Kim Minseok. I go to S High School and I’m in 12-2. I like someone I met at the party for the pretentious high socialite, and he was so drunk at that time he called my name bizarrely. I think the way he laughs was so adorable and I want to get to know him better. Do you think he would like to be my boyfriend?”

“Well, I’m Lu Han, and I guess we’re both in the same class. There’s this boy I’d like to kiss all the time, he’s awesomely sexy and cute at the same time, and you don’t know how lucky I am that he wanted to be my boyfriend. I would like to get to know him better when he’s ready,” Lu Han said with the widest smile.

“I guess you’re stuck with me now. I’m a mess, and a fool, just so you know. Because for well you know that it’s a fool who plays it cool by making his world a little colder,” the smaller boy singsonged.

Lu Han chuckled because he understood the reference. “I don’t mind. I guess I’ll keep you warm then.”

“Gross.”

They were both laughing and feeling the secondhand embarrassment from all the people who weren’t there to witness their cheesiness. But they both liked it all the same.

“Lu Han-ah,” the said boy looked up with a smile at the affectionate term of his name, he liked the sound of it. “What are we?” Minseok asked with the matching wide smile.

“Boyfriend,” Lu Han said before kissed the boy on the lips softly. “You’re my boyfriend, Minseok-ah.”

“Boyfriend. I like the sound of that.”

 

After a few minutes (of being cheesy to each other), the rain was slowly letting up. Minseok’s mother’s car was passing by them to go inside the house. They were sitting side by side and both just looking at the moving car in front of them, not saying anything.

“My mother is home,” Minseok informed him.

“Do you want to go back in?” Lu Han asked.

“Do _you_ want to come in?” he asked back.

Lu Han looked at him with wide-eyes as if to ask if the boy was serious. The teasing tone was there actually to cover up his nervousness as he asked the question, but he was serious enough about this.

“Come on, drive me back inside. I don’t want to get soaked in the rain,” Minseok pouted, taking Lu Han’s hand to his.

Lu Han looked at their hands, seemingly contemplated the way out. But in the end, he came to decision, “Fine. I’m nervous, just so you know.”

Minseok chuckled. “You’re not alone on that,” he muttered in small voice.

Lu Han drove his car into the driveway. Minseok gave him a short kiss and assured him that he looked absolutely great before getting out of the car. Lu Han followed Minseok to the door and was greeted by the maid who took his umbrella. They walked to the foyer and there was a woman who looked so much like Minseok standing beside one of the door, looking inside the study where his father at.

“Mother, you’re home,” Minseok greeted her with a kiss on the cheek.

“Son! Were you out in the rain?” she raised her eyebrows in surprise. With the way Minseok’s pants were still wet and wrinkled, it was obvious that he was walking in the rain.

“Well, a bit,” he said sheepishly.

Minseok’s father came out of the study room to greet his wife with a kiss on the cheek. Mr. Kim was the same height as Lu Han, while his wife was slightly shorter than his son. He looked at the new face in his living room briefly then looked at his son.

“And who is this young man here?” she asked him facing at the brunette.

“Mother, Father, this is Lu Han,” Minseok gestured to the boy beside him who bowed instantly to the elders.

“Hello, my name is Lu Han. I’m Minseok’s friend from school. Nice to meet you, Mr. and Mrs. Kim,” he said a bit nervously.

“Nice to meet you too,” Minseok’s mother said after his husband. “You have a very good manner. You’re such a pretty young man, Lu Han.”

Lu Han was smiling meanwhile Minseok resist the urge to laugh because he knew how much Lu Han disliked to be called pretty. But with the way Lu Han smiled, it was possible that he actually liked to be acknowledged as pretty by his mother.

“So, this is your friend that had been mentioned by the maid. We were wondering when we would finally meet you. She said you haven’t been come in the past few months,” his father said kindly.

“Well, we were both had been busy,” Minseok explained.

“Is that another term for ‘having lover’s quarrel’?” Mr. Kim raised his eyebrow teasingly.

Lu Han choked on his own breath and started coughing nervously behind his hand. Mrs. Kim was giggling while Minseok was spluttering with wide eyes, “Father!”

“Oh Honey, stop teasing them. Poor boy was nervous enough as is,” Mrs. Kim said as she patted Lu Han’s back softly until he stopped his coughing fit.

“I feel like crying,” Minseok whined.

“There, there. When would we ever get the rare chance of teasing our little Minseokkie here?” the father ruffled his son’s hair lovingly while laughing softly.

Lu Han looked at the family with dumbfounded expression. He might not expected Minseok’s parents to be like this with the way Minseok brought himself around other people. People outside this house might think that the parents of the family were too strict for their own good because they were filthy rich and might have high expectation for their only son.

“Well, Han dear, are you going to stay for dinner?” Mrs. Kim asked the tall brunette.

“I thought Father said you two had plans for tonight,” Minseok said confused.

The husband and wife looked at each other briefly and shrugged at the same time. It was always eerie, Minseok thought, how his parents could be acting like each other naturally all the time. “We were both actually had taken off work for the week. We could just have our plans done tomorrow or any other time, right dear?” Mr. Kim said with a smile, his wife nodded encouragingly.

Minseok groaned internally.

“Well, I would love to join you for dinner,” Lu Han said with a charming smile.

Minseok thought that he could hear his parents cooed at the sight. He groaned internally again. “I’m going to go change,” he muttered.

Lu Han looked at him walking out toward the stairs and back to the parents, waiting to be excused. The parents nodded, and he said “See you at dinner, Mr. and Mrs. Kim,” before he followed the shorter boy to his room.

 

Minseok groaned loudly when he stepped inside his room. Lu Han looked at him amused because Minseok was so cute being all riled up, and that was probably the reason why he had always annoyed the hell out of the boy. Inside the walk-in closet, the shorter boy pulled out clean clothes to change into.

When he was out, in his white dress shirt under the crème sweater vest and dark brown slacks, he plopped down beside Lu Han who was sitting on the sofa. The brunette quickly shoved down his phone into his pocket. “Are you okay?” he asked.

“Yeah, I guess. Are _you_ okay?” Minseok asked back.

“Well, that wasn’t what I was expecting actually,” Lu Han said softly.

“My parents aren’t scary. They’re just... a bit... extra,” the shorter boy groaned.

Lu Han chuckled and pulled him into a hug. Minseok ended up resting his head on Lu Han’s shoulder as they cuddled on the couch.

"How did they know about us though?" Lu Han curiously asked.

"Well, they were spooky like that. I guess they just know me too well, and with a little bit information from the maid, they could easily come up with the obvious conclusion." The smaller boy sighed. 

“If it makes you any better, my parents were the same, if not worse,” Minseok looked up at the other boy in disbelief. He just couldn’t believe there were other parents as embarrassing and too knowing as his. Lu Han continued, “I never told you this, but my mom knew about us, and I think my dad too.”

“What?!”

“Calm down. My mom saw me walking toward you that night at the party. And in the morning when I came back from the hotel, she asked me where I was disappeared into at the party. I said I was going outside for fresh air. And she asked again if I were out with that cute boy at the party. I ended up spilling everything as my mom was a persistent energetic middle-aged lady,” Lu Han explained.

“You mean your mother knew we were having sex?” Minseok asked incredulously. He was ready to jump out of the window rather than meeting with Lu Han’s mother who apparently knew everything.

“No. I told her we were walking around the street near the building. I told her I kissed the cute boy at the sidewalk under the lamppost and confessed to her that I liked him,” Lu Han was absent-mindedly playing with Minseok’s palm.

“And she bought that?”

“Yes. She was a hopeless romantic at heart. And she told me, ‘Fighting!’ everytime I was going to go out with you. And she kept pestering me ‘Are you and Minseok dating yet?’ over and over again. It was some kind of hell to be living in,” Lu Han said but he was smiling at the memory.

“I’m sorry,” Minseok muttered.

“Why are you sorry?”

“It must’ve been hard for you to go through that when I was acting like a jerk to you all those time,” Minseok said full of regret.

“Well, I meant it when I told her I like you. She was just saying all that to encourage me,” Lu Han rubbed Minseok’s elbow softly.

“Still... I was the biggest jerk to you after that one time. I was a mess I can’t even admit to myself that I like you all this time. I guess I really am a fool. You should’ve punched me when you got the chance.”

“Minseok-ah, you aren’t all those things. I couldn’t justify your action, and I admit the whole time we didn’t talk to each other was kinda bummed me out. But I don’t mind that much because of the outcome. After all, in the end, you’ve come to me and I couldn’t be happier,” Lu Han said with a relief smile.

“You’re such a sap,” Minseok giggled. “I’m afraid I’m turning into one, because I like how you’re so patient with me. I hope you realize that I, someone who’s always uncomfortable around people, could easily let you into my life because you’ve already made me feel like home from day one.”

“Sappy~” Lu Han singsonged even when he was so red in the face. He buried his face in the crook of Minseok’s neck and they giggled at what they’ve become.

“This is so not like us,” Minseok laughed, his whole body and Lu Han’s were shaking because of the ridiculousness.

“Yes. But I like it when we could get to talk heart-to-heart like this. I’ve been waiting for this moment my whole life,” Lu Han whispered.

“No need to exaggerate. We’ve got all the time in the world, Han.” He kissed Lu Han’s hair and they both smiled.

They settled themselves down comfortably just holding onto each other. Minseok played with Lu Han’s hair, running his fingers softly on the soft lock. Lu Han was still playing with Minseok’s other hand absent-mindedly and he was rubbing his face in the crook of Minseok’s neck like a clingy kitten would do.

“Hey, this stupid shirt made an appearance,” Lu Han said suddenly, still burying his head in the other’s shoulder.

Minseok pulled out slightly to look at him and look down at the said shirt. “What do you mean?”

“You’ve worn this at the party.”

“You remember about that?” Minseok wondered.

“Of course. I remember all that. I remember that it has been a year and forty-seven days since we’ve first met each other. I still don’t know what that party was about though. I remember you’ve got riled up over this stupid shirt twice that night, it was so cute I couldn’t believe you existed. I remember this shirt because you said it was your favorite white shirt and it has these snow fractal design around the cuff, collar and along the button line. I might be a little bit too drunk that night, but my memories are as clear as day because it involved you.” Minseok looked at him with awe at all the information. “I know, I’m awesome like that,” Lu Han added sheepishly. And that shattered the wonder a little bit.

Still, Minseok couldn’t help but smiled and kissed him passionately. He couldn’t believe this boy was his boyfriend. They ended up kissing for a long time and somehow Minseok was on top of Lu Han while Lu Han was on his back on the couch. When Lu Han’s hands on his butt over the pants started to sneak into the skin under the clothes to caress the round globe, Minseok pulled out from the kiss.

“Han, please,” he panted. “Not when my parents in the same building.”

“We were both having sex for the first time when _both of our_ parents were in the same building,” Lu Han said trying to get away with it.

“Well, it’s different. It’s the-whole-eight-stories different. My parents could’ve walked by anytime.”

“But...” Lu Han whined, kneading his butt cheeks under the clothes trying to rile the boy up so that he would give in to the temptation.

“Han, do you want to be left hanging and had to come to dinner with my parents with a hard-on?” Minseok threatened.

Lu Han froze. He pulled his hands out of the clothes and patted the butt softly in apology. Just kissing then, they settled with just kissing.

 

Dinner time came around and the two boys were walking down the stairs to the dining room after being informed by the maid that the meal had been prepared. There was nobody around yet, so Minseok pulled a chair beside his usual seat for Lu Han to sit. Lu Han smiled shyly at the gesture and they giggled just because.

Moments later, Minseok’s father walked into the dining room wearing a navy blue dress shirt and black slacks with Minseok’s mother holding onto his arm in a very proper sky blue cocktail dress that stopped around her knees and elbows. She looked even more youthful and he looked even more charismatic. Lu Han and Minseok got up from their seat to bow at them. Mr. Kim rounded the table and gave the two each pats on the back before sat down beside his wife.

“You look lovely, Mrs. Kim,” Lu Han commented, his eyes were dreamy as he looked at the beauty in front of him.

Minseok closed his eyes to brace what would come, and he was right when his father started.

“Now, now. Don’t get too ahead of yourself, young man. She’s mine,” Mr. Kim warned. Lu Han visibly gulped at this and put on an apologetic face. “Dear, isn’t he cute? I can’t help teasing these two all the time!” he turned to his wife who grinned widely. It was eerily the same as the ones Minseok often put.

“Come on, honey. Don’t give him too much of a hard time. I bet Minseok here had done it enough, because, you know, he’s a rock,” she pointedly looked at her son who gaped at his parents in disbelief. She giggled and her husband joined along.

Minseok pouted like a five year old and the three cooed at the sight. Lu Han grabbed Minseok’s hand softly under the table and gave a small comforting stroke before let go. The shorter boy sighed. This was going to be a long dinner.

When the meal came, they filled each other with conversations. Lu Han was shy at first, but after a few teasing banter between Mr. and Mrs. Kim, he got more comfortable and opened up a few conversation. They laughed properly, a lot. And when the dreaded topic came, Minseok could only grumble to himself.

“Yes! Do you know that Minseokkie here really hated when someone touched his face without his permission? I mean, one couldn’t help but pinch his fluffy cheeks right? He didn’t say anything first when his older relatives do that, but he would come running to us and cried out that some auntie was just pinched his cheeks and he didn’t like it because it was kinda hurt. His mother would ask him where it was hurt, and she would kiss the cheeks to get him stop crying and start smiling instead,” Mr. Kim smiled fondly at the memory.

“And ever since then he would never leave our sight and always trailing after us even when there was children his age around. I think that was why he was kinda hate people,” Mrs. Kim added.

“I didn’t hate people. I’m just uncomfortable because I’m afraid they would do something to me, Mother,” Minseok said defensibly.

“I understand that. But you should reduce your negativity a bit to see the good on some people. You clouded their first impression with your own negativity towards them, and it wasn’t all that good for you,” Mrs. Kim advised kindly, but not too patronizing.

“I know that, and I’m trying, Mother. I won’t let you guys down,” Minseok said reassuring his parents with a smile.

The two parents smiled proudly at their son’s determination. They would never demand their son to change out of his character, but if the slight change would make him a better person, then why not?

Lu Han smiled too, seeing the warm interaction within the family. He looked at them fondly with stars in his eyes. And with this, he could see another side of Minseok he could totally fall into. They fell into another conversation comfortably. If it was any other day, Minseok would hate to be so exposed like this. But it was Lu Han and his parents, he would never felt any more comfortable than this.

“You guys are still young and all. The life is vast and the possibilities are never ending. But I sincerely hope you guys would stick to each other as long as you can. Han, please bear with this child over here, he could be a handful at times, but he’s a good kid,” Mr. Kim said.

Okay, that was weird. This was happening too soon. And Minseok could feel his world was spinning slightly. He gaped at his father’s word.

“Sure, Mr. Kim. Minseok takes care of me well, and I’d like to do the same for him,” Lu Han said smiling.

Minseok looked at Lu Han and then his parents again, and all he could think of was what the hell he was bringing himself into?

“Thank you, Han, dear. I knew we could count on you,” his mother added.

That was it. He chuckled nervously before gulping down his water. “Okay, guys. This is getting a little bit too—way too weird,” he mumbled loud enough for the three to hear it too.

The other three chuckled to ease the nervousness and dinner was pleasant time for the four of them.

Lu Han said goodbye to the elder hosts with a courteous bow full of gratitude and promise to join another dinner with them again in the future. Minseok followed Lu Han to his car to say his goodbye there.

“Thanks for today, Han,” Minseok hugged him tightly beside the driver’s door.

“Thanks to you too, Minseok-ah. I had a nice time. I can’t believe we had just made up few hours before the dinner. I feel like the time we were _weren’t talking to each other_ was just a distant memory away,” Lu Han said in their tight hold.

“I know, right? And again, I’m sorry for that, Han. I’ll get better for you.” Minseok pulled out from the hug to give the taller boy a short kiss for that promise.

“I like you the way you are, but I won’t mind the better you,” Lu Han said before kissing him again, long and passionate this time.

Too long, Minseok had to break away before anything else got too heated. “You need to go home, Han,” he said breathlessly.

“I love kissing you,” Lu Han said with a little bit of panic over almost tripping on his own words.

“Okay, okay. Keep it in your pants for now. We can do it another time later, okay?” Minseok smiled at his boyfriend.

“Sure. I can’t wait!” the brunette said before groping Minseok’s butt and slap it lightly. Minseok squeaked.

“Go away before I punch you.”

“Bye, Minseokkie!” Lu Han kissed him again shortly before getting into his car. He started his car and waved to his boyfriend then drove away.

Minseok smiled to himself feeling much, much lighter than any other day he had been living. He liked his boyfriend so much he felt like getting out of character just to squeal and giggled like a little girl. But he didn’t do it. Who knew maybe his parents was watching him from one of the windows and he won’t survive their teasing in the future if he did something so unlike him.

 


	7. Coda

Junmyeon, Jongdae, and Minseok were shouting when another goal was scored by the team captain. The three of them were wearing their school’s football jersey (not the official one, but the supporter one). Embarrassingly enough, the three of them each were holding a huge handwritten sign, with Junmyeon was holding the sign _CAPTAIN ♥_ , Minseok was holding _LU HAN ♥_ , and Jongdae was holding _JJANG! ♥_. And it would be spelled as it was with Junmyeon, Minseok, and Jongdae sat on the bleachers while holding their position and signs so that the said captain would see them from the field. Minseok was groaning the whole time because he wasn’t signed up for this at all. But when Jongdae came with the three signs and gave him one, he really couldn’t say anything because Junmyeon was beaming and took one for himself to held it high up in the air.

Lu Han and Minseok had agreed to keep their relationship to be stayed as secret. They had one mind when it came to keeping everything to themselves, because people still didn’t need to know about how close they are. They didn’t mind to come out to their two friends though, but they agreed to tell them when the time was right. And that would mean that they were going to keep on their façade of being just friends, but still sneaking some kisses when it was just the two of them. Maybe when graduation came, they would make out in front of their two unknowing friends and capture the surprise looks on their face when they said that the two had been dating all along the whole time.

That Saturday afternoon though, was Lu Han’s last match as the team captain, before he handed the position to one of his junior. His three friends agreed to watch him play but Lu Han didn’t know that Jongdae would make the three of them pulled this stunt. Minseok saw how wide Lu Han’s eyes had gotten when he was on the field and first caught sight of the three of them holding those signs. And then Lu Han’s face got scrunched up so badly people asked him what happened just because he was trying so hard to stifle his laugh that threatened to come at the sight of his friends. He still had to be charming and charismatic on the field though, so he kept all of his emotions to himself the whole time he was playing.

But when Lu Han scored the team’s third goal, he couldn’t help but shot love bullets to the direction where his three friends were shouting on the bleachers. Minseok got too caught up and pulled down the scarf he was wearing the whole time to hide his face and blew kisses to the captain and screamed his name from the top of his lung. Lu Han was laughing wildly now, and Junmyeon and Jongdae were looking at the two of them baffled. They couldn’t believe their own eyes seeing Minseok was so out of character just for Lu Han. Because maybe in their eyes, the two of them were kinda hated each other.

“What?” Minseok asked his bewildered friends who stared at him with wonder of what had gotten into him. “I thought we were making his last match as team captain more memorable,” he said adopting the words Jongdae had put before. He shrugged and continued watching the match.

When the end game whistle had blown to announce their school team’s win over their rival with 4-2, the audiences roared and chanted the school’s jargon. The players on the field bowed respectfully to each other and the other team, and Lu Han’s teammates surrounded him to give him tight hug and pat for the good game. Minseok was fuming internally because some of the teammates were hugging too tightly and patted the butt that was reserved for him only. “Mine!” he seethed low enough, but Jongdae caught the word.

“What was that?” he asked the cat-eyed boy.

“Hm? Nothing. Do you think Lu Han _mind_ for some celebration with us?” Minseok asked back.

“But doesn’t he need to celebrate with his own teammates too? We could just do it another time,” Junmyeon said.

“Maybe you’re right,” Minseok mumbled uninterestedly.

But without the two knowing, Minseok had sent a message to Lu Han _“I’ll be waiting near your car, babe.”_

The three of them parted ways when Minseok said that he had something to do after. They waved goodbye before Minseok bolted to the direction where Lu Han’s blue car parked and waited near there out of sight of everyone else until Lu Han would show up.

Lu Han did show up. Hair still wet from the recent shower, and his duffel bag was stuffed haphazardly. He quickened his pace from the field gate toward the parking lot and he could see Minseok was standing near his car. He clicked the car remote to unlock his car. Minseok scanned the surrounding, and after Lu Han’s car lock went off, he jumped into the passenger seat before Lu Han reached his own seat. But when Lu Han opened the driver’s door, they heard someone calling his name from afar.

“Lu Han!” Jongdae shouted loudly enough to turn few heads toward his direction. Junmyeon was close behind him.

“I thought you were going to celebrate with your teammates,” Junmyeon said and when the two peeked into the car from the opening door they could see Minseok was sitting quietly in the passenger seat.

“Yeah, we were celebrating another time,” Lu Han said sheepishly.

“What are you doing here, Minseok?” the bespectacled boy asked curiously.

“Oh, hey. I just saw Lu Han walking to his car and I asked if he could give me a lift,” he answered innocently.

“Yeah. Do you want to come too?” Lu Han asked awkwardly. Minseok glared at him subtly because he already had something else in mind.

“I thought you have plan?” Junmyeon asked Minseok.

“Change of plan,” he shrugged.

“Okay.” The two invited themselves into the backseat and joined the others for the ride.

Minseok was itching for Lu Han. He wanted to touch him, or kiss him, or feel him, or hold him, but he couldn’t do anything at the moment with Lu Han driving and Junmyeon and Jongdae were in the backseat chatting and praising his boyfriend for the good game.

“We thought you were going to celebrate with your teammates tonight, so we didn’t ask you to celebrate with us,” Junmyeon told the driving boy.

“Oh. The coach asked us to rest because we had been pushing ourselves a bit for this final match. He promised us samgyeopsal if we agreed to rest today,” he said with a smile to the rearview mirror.

“Well, are you tired right now?” Jongdae asked.

“No, not really. I’m actually still feeling adrenaline rushing through my system from the match. I feel like I could run a marathon,” Lu Han laughed.

“Well, how about we just eat dinner together? I still think you need to celebrate today!” Junmyeon said excitedly.

“Sure. I don’t mind! I’m actually craving for some Chinese hot pot,” Lu Han said with equal excitement.

“Great. I’m in! What about you, Minseok? Do you have any other plans?” Jongdae asked the boy on the passenger seat.

“Well, not anymore,” he mumbled. He was a bit grumpy, and he was sure Lu Han noticed. But he couldn’t really stay grumpy when he was still going to be with his boyfriend after all.

“Okay! Chinese hot pot then. It’ll be Minseok’s treat,” Lu Han cheered.

The other two cheered too while Minseok exclaimed, “Hey!”

But he didn’t mind at all, because he liked hot pot and he liked his friends. And on top of it all he liked Lu Han.

 

He didn’t mind because he would sneak into the bathroom in the middle of the meal, before Lu Han joined him and they would kiss and make out, tasting the spicy hot pot from each other’s tongue. Lu Han had trapped him in front of the long sink of the restaurant’s bathroom when there was no one around.

“I’ve been waiting for that the whole time,” Minseok said breathlessly when they broke for oxygen.

“Me too. Thanks for cheering me out there. I couldn’t take my eyes off of you with you holding my name and that cute heart sign up in the air,” Lu Han said before giving another short peck.

“Well, you were so hot and too cool in the field. That jersey shorts were too distracting. Good thing you’re not wearing it right now or else I’ll take it off of you and just take you right here right now,” Minseok’s voice was low and full of promise.

Lu Han couldn’t help but moan slightly and he could feel the excitement going south of him. “Why don’t you just do it?”

“Nah, too public. Beside, the things are in my bag,” Minseok reasoned.

“Just take me raw,” Lu Han suggested not hiding his whine.

Minseok chuckled. He kissed Lu Han softly. “No, I want to make you feel good too. Just you wait, okay?”

Lu Han pouted but he eventually give in. “I’ll book the room upstairs,” he said before pulling out his phone to make the reservation.

Minseok chuckled and proceeded to fix his appearance. He smoothed out his hair impeccably and reached for Lu Han’s hair too. They were smiling at each other lovingly when the door opened and Junmyeon was there looking at them confused. Lu Han’s hands were around Minseok’s waist and the shorter was looking up at him with his hand was brushing softly on the brunette locks, when they noticed Junmyeon they quickly broke away and put on an awkward distance and smile.

“You guys were taking so long. I was wondering what you were doing,” Junmyeon said with a soft voice. With the way he was talking and confused look he threw at the two boys, he definitely saw the two’s intimate moment.

“Yeah, I think Minseok was taking a dump and I had to make phone call,” Lu Han said sheepishly while waving the phone in his hand.

Minseok glared at him because he definitely didn’t take any dump, but he chose not to say anything. That was not the important thing he had to explain.

“Oh,” was all Junmyeon said before going to the sink beside the two boys and cleaned his hands.

Minseok ran past the door quickly before any other questions directed at him or Lu Han. He mentally cursed at himself to let himself be this sloppy. But then to think about it more, he didn’t really mind. They were going to come out to their friends eventually. If they’ve been found out then, so be it.

Back at their table, he found Jongdae scooping out some more vegetables to his own bowl. He was playing with his chopsticks between his lips and teeth so it looked like two tusks coming out of his mouth. Minseok chuckled because this kid had too much free time and wild imagination.

“Were you taking a dump?” Jongdae asked before he took another mouthful of meat and veggies.

Minseok snorted incredulously. “I didn’t take a dump. We’re eating, Jongdae. Stop talking about that.”

“What’s wrong with it? It’s natural occurrence for a human being. Unless you’re an alien. And in that case, I think we need to talk more about that then,” the boy with glasses said before chewing the meat loudly.

Lu Han and Junmyeon were coming back to their table together and sat down without words. Lu Han sat beside Minseok while Junmyeon sat beside Jongdae. Junmyeon couldn’t take his eyes off of the two boys in front of him.

Lu Han snatched the ladle and scooped his own portion of meat and veggies and stock into Minseok’s bowl, before he took his own bowl and filled it with the same amount of food. Minseok said his thanks and smiled, and this didn’t go unnoticed by his friend.

“I thought you guys hated each other,” Junmyeon stated abruptly.

“Who?” Jongdae piped up.

“These two,” he said while pointing at Minseok and Lu Han.

“We never hated each other. Where did that come from, Junmyeon?” Minseok said nonchalantly.

“Well, before, you guys always seemed distant and didn’t talk much to each other. Minseok never even said Lu Han’s name fully until recently. Always mentioned him as this guy or that boy or whatever,” Junmyeon got chatty because he was so confused at his friends.

“It was kinda true, but what of it, Joonie?” Jongdae asked.

“Apparently these two had become closer than we thought. I caught them grooming each other in the bathroom,” Junmyeon said.

“Really? Grooming each other? That’s... weird.”

The confused look on the two’s face were priceless. They were waiting for an explanation. Minseok looked at Lu Han with a small knowing smile and silently signed to each other that it was time.

“What can I say? We’re boyfriends,” Lu Han stated with a cheerful smile that matched with Minseok’s shy one.

“What?”

“Are you serious?”

“How?”

“Since when?”

“Were you guys banging in the bathroom?”

“Kim Minseok I can’t believe you!”

“Lu Han, I thought we were best friend!”

Series of barging questions were thrown at them. They didn’t have the chance to answer those questions so they were just staying still until the moment passed. Maybe they should just make out in front of them to stop the two talking with surprised and betrayed tone, but they were in public, so Minseok decided that it was too bad of an idea.

Eventually Junmyeon and Jongdae stopped talking. They took a deep breath and looked at them with matching stern expression before saying, “Spill.” Minseok and Lu Han got goosebumps at how the two could be so in sync.

“Well, we knew each other since junior year. And we started dating after midterm,” Lu Han said simply.

“Yeah, that’s all,” Minseok added not spilling any more detail.

“You mean you knew each other because I asked Minseok to interview you that one time?” Junmyeon asked.

“No. It was way before that,” the tallest of the four stated.

“Then why did you act as if you didn’t know him at all, Minseok?” Junmyeon asked pointedly.

“I don’t want to bore you with the long detail, guys,” Minseok shrugged.

“Fine. Don’t tell the nasty things you did to each other. Just...” Jongdae trailed off and made a gesture that more or less meant _keep it in your pants at all time_.

“Congratulations, then. Minseok, you’re lucky to have this hot piece of ass for yourself,” Junmyeon said. Lu Han couldn’t stop his laughing at his two friends.

“You don’t think I deserved that title too?” Minseok asked incredulously.

“You’ve changed, Kim Minseok. It’s kinda scary,” Junmyeon said shortly.

“You totally deserved that title, Kim,” Lu Han said before chuckling again.

“Just...” Jongdae repeated his hand gesture from before.

The four friends chuckled and they continued the evening with hot pot and trivial questions about the couple. They answered honestly and kept some details to themselves, and the other two respected them and just glad they were in the knowing about their relationship. Minseok and Lu Han explained the reason why they kept their relationship a secret, and the other two agreed that privacy was a hard thing to come by these days and promised not to babble around about the couple. If only they knew how many times the two of them had been lying and sneaking around to get it on around the empty corners and locked doors of their school.

“I can’t believe you, Lu Han. Minseok of all people,” Junmyeon said still in awe.

“Why? Minseok’s cute,” Jongdae said instead.

“I know that. But still, he’s a rock colder than iceberg.”

“Minseok’s a softie,” Lu Han said simply.

“That’s true too,” Junmyeon mumbled raising his eyebrows at the obvious thing he had missed.

“You were the one who said that someone of his character is lovable. I like him with his usual attitude and I fell with who he is inside. You know that he always takes care of us well,” Lu Han said.

Minseok could feel his face heating up. And it was definitely not because of the spicy hot pot. He concentrated hard on the food in front of him while schooling his expression. He really had no idea of what to do or say for that matter.

“Praise him more, he’s blushing,” Jongdae teased wearing his shit-eating grin when he glanced at the cat-eyed boy.

The other two smiled hard at the blushing boy. He really looked adorable as Junmyeon pointed it out. Minseok couldn’t even glare at him for that comment.

“Now that I observe him more, his eyes are captivating. It looks like he could see right through your soul, but when they soften it’s as if you could be drowning in them,” Junmyeon added.

“Blegh. That is too romantic,” Jongdae snorted before he looked at the boy beside Minseok. “Lu Han do something about this.”

“Yeah, Junmyeon. Back off. He’s mine,” Lu Han glared playfully.

Minseok was blushing even harder. He could feel his ear becoming red too. He wanted to drown himself under ice-capped water and just froze there. Lu Han stared at him with loving eyes and he couldn’t take off the smile adorning his face.

“Now you look like you really want to jump on him this instant. Lu Han, stop. We got it, you love him,” Jongdae sighed in mock exasperation.

The two were visibly flustered and Minseok really wished he could summon a lightning to struck Jongdae with it. Or turn him into a block of ice. Or drown him in the ocean. Or slingshot him to outer space. Just anything to stop him talking. Lu Han chuckled nervously, trying to ease up the conversation again.

“Maybe we really should make out in front of them, Minseok-ah.” Leave it to Lu Han to joke around inappropriately to hide the embarrassment he felt.

“Should we?” Minseok was doing things with his eyebrows looking at his boyfriend, trying to hide how his heart beating out of his chest.

The two unconsciously stared at each other’s lips and that was when Junmyeon cleared his throat loudly. “Guys, I just feel the need to remind you that this place is fairly public. And please, please keep it in your pants for now.”

They laughed again and enjoy the rest of the food. The teasing banter continued though, but Lu Han and Minseok were always had comeback with witty remark. Junmyeon and Jongdae congratulated them again and Minseok felt so happy.

They parted ways, and Lu Han said his apology for not able to take the three of them home safely and stated that he had another plan after. Minseok pretended not to know and shrugged off stating that he would call his driver to take him home. Jongdae and Junmyeon decided to take the bus together before the time ran out. When the two out of sight, Minseok and Lu Han walked back into the building and checked into the hotel together.

 

Minseok threw his bag onto the floor and stepping out of his shoes while attacking Lu Han who was doing the same with his duffel bag and shoes. They breathed each other’s air and pushed each other passionately until Minseok hoisted Lu Han up in his arms. He brought the brunette onto the queen-sized bed and continued kissing him with fervor.

“Been waiting for so long,” Minseok said between the kisses. “I’m going to make you feel good, Han.”

Lu Han answered with bucking up his hip toward the boy on top of him and they both moaned. They continued rocking each other rhythmically and the music of their moaning started unceremoniously. Minseok opened up the button of his jeans to stop the restrain within himself leaving him with his boxer, and then he proceeded with Lu Han’s jeans. He pulled off the jeans along with the briefs and trailed kisses on the strong thigh of his boyfriend.

Lu Han tugged on the black lock and softly guided the head onto the cock. Minseok gulped nervously because he rarely did this, but this time he had promised himself and his boyfriend that he would make him feel good. He licked experimentally on the crown of the half-hard cock, lapping at the pre-cum, and he could feel Lu Han trembled under him. The fingers on his hair were brushing softly in encouragement and he started to lick along the shaft and trailed the vein along with his tongue. Lu Han was becoming a mess of incoherent sounds, and he decided to take him whole into his mouth. He started sucking and making sinful slurping noise, teeth grazing slightly in hope he wasn’t hurting and making his boyfriend uncomfortable with his amateur blow job.

Minseok hummed and Lu Han groaned at the vibration. He was chanting “That’s good, Kim” over and over again as he drowned in pleasure. Minseok let out a grateful moan before starting to move his head so the hardened member was in and out of his mouth. He bobbed his head slowly but surely, taking in all the voices Lu Han made, closing his eyes.

It wasn’t long before Lu Han started moving on his own, he thrust his hip in and out Minseok’s mouth and when he felt the tip of his cock hit the back of Minseok’s throat, Minseok pulled back abruptly. They both cried out a loud “Sorry!”

“Sorry, it’s just... I’m not an expert, Han,” Minseok said apologetically after catching a gulp of air, tears slightly filled his eyes from trying hard not to gag.

“No, I’m sorry. It was just too good, and I got too carried away, babe. I didn’t mean to hurt you,” Lu Han said with the same amount of regret. He pulled and kissed his boyfriend softly. “You don’t have to do that.”

“But I want to,” Minseok said with determination. “Let’s do it slowly, okay?”

“Okay. Just, do more with your tongue. It’s—ah!” Lu Han was cut off by another lick on his shaft. Minseok was spontaneous like that.

Lu Han carded his fingers to the black hair again, breath got even heavier with the slow drag of his boyfriend’s mouth doing. The black-haired boy continued to lick and suck, and eventually he took Lu Han into his mouth again and started bobbing his head up and down while still swirling his tongue along the drag. Lu Han liked it so much, because damn his boyfriend might be not an expert but he knew what he was doing and it drove the brunette over the edge. When he felt he was going to come, he warned, “Minseok-ah, I’m going to...”

Surprisingly Minseok didn’t pull out immediately, he took some of the semen into his mouth and pulled away enough just before the spill flooded his mouth too much. He took a deep breath and swallowed the salty taste of his boyfriend and wiped some of the spill dripping down his chin. He smiled innocently to his boyfriend like he didn’t just do something so dirty. Lu Han looked at him in a slight disbelief and some sense of pride seemed bubbling inside him.

“Should’ve taken off my clothes first,” he mumbled solemnly looking down his jersey shirt that got some of the spill on it. Lu Han chuckled because that was more kinda like his boyfriend. “Eh, whatever,” then he proceeded to take off his shirt and threw it onto the floor.

The shorter boy went to his bag and took the medium-sized clear bottle out. It was almost empty. They really need to restock, he thought to himself. He was startled when his phone rang and his mother’s ID came into the screen.

“Hello, Mother. Yes, I’ve told you I was watching Lu Han’s soccer match. Well, Junmyeon and Jongdae decided to have a sleepover to celebrate the team’s winning at Lu Han’s house. Yes, the team won, Mother. I know, I think I’ll be home tomorrow afternoon. Okay, thank you. Goodnight, Mother,” Minseok clipped answers ended and he put back his phone on the nightstand.

“Sly,” Lu Han quipped in singsong when his almost-naked boyfriend came back to him.

“Shut up. It’s not like I’m going to tell my parents that I’m having sex with my boyfriend. They would freak out and I’m never gonna live to see the day.”

Lu Han chuckled because he knew well about that. Minseok stopped the laughing boy with a hard kiss so that they could continue what they were doing. He sneaked his hands to Lu Han’s shirt and pulled away just to strip him off of his last piece of clothing. He did the same with his own boxer and they continued kissing with much more skin to skin contact.

Minseok opened up the bottle and let out some of the liquid onto his hand. He coated his finger enough and warmed it up a little by repeatedly rubbing his fingers together. He started rimming Lu Han’s opening with his finger while still moving his tongue in the other’s mouth. Lu Han’s eyes snapped open when Minseok pushed one finger in and the shorter boy calmed him down with sucking his tongue particularly hard. Lu Han sighed into the kiss as he started to relax himself.

The shorter knew where to touch his boyfriend and familiar with where he was sensitive at. But he knew better that his boyfriend even more like it if they were kissing like there was no tomorrow, so he did just that. In time with his thrusting in and out his fingers, Minseok squeezed the half hard cock of his boyfriend, meanwhile he started rubbing his own erection onto the brunette’s thigh. Lu Han was feeling everything all at once, the crooked aim of the shorter boy inside of him, the dancing tongue in his mouth, the squeezing of the other’s small fingers around his cock, and the hot friction of his boyfriend’s hardening cock on his thigh. He became a moaning mess once again, and Minseok really lived up to his promise of making him feeling so, so, so good. When Lu Han was ready enough, Minseok pulled out and Lu Han whined at the loss of all the contact he felt before.

“Again...” he slurred, still high but still consciously not wanting to lose any more of the amazing feeling.

Minseok kissed him softly as a silent promise that it won’t be long before it could get better again. He lined up his hard throbbing cock with the inviting hole. He took a look at his boyfriend who became very whiny and even more demanding to hurry the hell up, and smiled to himself. He really couldn’t get over seeing his boyfriend during sex because the boy was just too sexy and cute and lovable at the same time.

He thrust in slowly, and the familiar heat he felt almost overwhelmed him. Lu Han was so lost in pleasured groaning and tried hard to catch his breath in the meantime Minseok dragged them to bottom out.

“God, Minseok, you’re so...” Lu Han trailed off hoping the words caught in his breath would be interpreted by his boyfriend just fine. “I want to kiss you, babe.”

So Minseok bent down to give his boyfriend the languid kiss they both like. They both like the sex to be slow but sure in the bedroom, because it made them felt even more amazing as if nothing more could rival the feeling of becoming one with each other. They both like the sound they made with the slow drag, the heavy breathing that sure as hell hard to catch, the racing heartbeat, and the sticky sweat building up during the whole thing.

When he felt that they were both close enough into the climax, Minseok pulled out of Lu Han’s lips and threw his legs over his shoulders to continue thrusting harder.

“Ah! Minseok—God...ah! There, ah! Yes!” Lu Han babbled continuously as Minseok continued thrusting and aimed just right into him.

“Han, you feel so good. God, you’re amazing.” The black-haired boy reached for the brunette’s cock to start pumping along with the rhythm of his thrust.

After two more of well-aimed thrust, Lu Han came spilling into Minseok’s hand and it wasn’t long after that Lu Han squeezed Minseok along his orgasm inside of him. He could feel the wet trickling down and he felt so satisfied. Minseok plopped down on top of him trying to catch his breath rivaling Lu Han’s own race. He could hear the rapid heartbeat of his boyfriend under him and he smiled to himself.

“Well, um, I’m gonna clean you up first and then we’re going to cuddle,” Minseok pulled out slowly with a groan. He kissed Lu Han again shortly before leaving the bed.

He came back from the bathroom with warm wet towel in hand and he found his boyfriend closing his eyes. Maybe he was feeling a bit exhausted. He did running around the field that afternoon after all, not to mention having two rounds of orgasms just recently. He got onto the bed slowly not to disturb the resting boy, and started rubbing the warm towel on the stomach and then around his hole. He pushed slightly so the cum he left could trickle out more. He could hear the soft moan Lu Han made at the gentle touch.

Minseok snorted. “Don’t get too comfortable, you. You need to rest,” he kissed Lu Han’s hair after throwing the wet towel on the floor, deciding not to care about that too much.

Lu Han mumbled incoherent sound, but it seemed that he was far from sleeping. “I love cuddles. You’re so soft and fluffy to cuddle with. My pillows couldn’t relate.” He clung onto his boyfriend and buried his face on the shorter boy’s cheek.

The black-haired boy chuckled and started running soothing fingers in the brown locks. “I’m so lucky to have you. You were so hot and cool in the field but you’re also so soft and adorable in my arms,” he muttered slowly, voice a bit hoarse because of the recent activity and the sleep that beginning to catch up to him.

“I could say the same thing. Okay, truth hour,” Lu Han mumbled.

“Hm?”

“Do you ever have a crush on someone?” the taller boy asked, voice sleepy but still full of wonder.

“Do you mean like longing-hopelessly crush or just-admiration crush?” Minseok asked back.

“Longing hopelessly.”

“Just you then,” the black-haired boy smiled to himself as he recalled all those feeling he felt when he and Lu Han put distance on themselves. He knew he missed him so much the entire time, and it was almost painful how he felt the longing in his heart.

“You’re too pure. Am I your first of everything?” Lu Han asked running his fingers in the shorter boy’s stomach. It made him tingly.

“I think I had my first kiss with one of my seniors in middle school,” Minseok muttered in a shy voice.

“I thought you said I was your only crush?” Lu Han raised his eyebrows, looking up slightly to the other boy.

“I was never longing hopelessly for him. I just liked him out of admiration, and he kinda guessed about that so he kissed me once before he had to move out of the city. It was more of a peck goodbye rather than first kiss. He said that he didn’t want to leave the city without me not knowing that he liked me too,” Minseok confessed, still shy as he revealed the memory.

“It seemed like he was the one who was longing hopelessly for you. Who is he? I’ll fight him,” the brunette boy in his chest was looking up at him with stern and serious eyes.

“Please don’t get jealous over nothing. We never met each other again even when I heard that he came back to Seoul for college,” he kissed Lu Han’s forehead and he could see the boy’s eyes softened.

“Where does he go to college?” Lu Han asked.

“Seouldae.”

“Huh, smart guy,” the brunette commented.

“He was someone I admired. Of course he’s smart,” Minseok hugged his boyfriend tightly.

“Good thing I come with the brain too then. But I’m watching you, Kim Minseok,” Lu Han returned the hug even tighter.

Minseok chuckled airily. “I think Junmyeon had a crush on you though,” he mumbled.

“Where did that come from? And here I thought it was Jongdae on you,” Lu Han said confused.

“Well, he did mention that you were dreamy and good looking and you had this soft and warm feeling around you, his own words by the way. Before you were friends, he always looked at you with eyes full of admiration. And Jongdae always treats everyone close to him with so much care. He does that to Junmyeon and you too,” Minseok grinned lazily.

“Yeah, but I’m taken,” the taller boy looked up to him again with matching grin. He reached to kiss his boyfriend shortly.

They paused for a brief silence. Moment passed with just hearing their calming breathing while absent-mindedly running fingers on the other’s skin repeatedly. They realized how much their bodies had change over the year. Lu Han with his avid practicing on the field had made his body even more prominent. Abs forming and strong thigh got even stronger. Minseok also had his fair share of own exercise had got him more buffed despite his cute face. His biceps surrounded with firm muscles while his chest even more toned. Lu Han was carelessly rubbing his palm over Minseok’s lean stomach, sending tingle to the smaller boy’s insides.

“Okay, my turn. What was your first impression of me?” Minseok wondered while playing with the brunette’s hair.

“Hm, my first thought when I saw you might be the same as what everyone thinks. Cute with nice eyes. But when I first saw you smiled, I think I had a flash of wonder what it would be like to kiss your lips. Ah, now that I’ve said it out loud, it was kinda weird thought to think about someone who you just met,” he smiled sheepishly embarrassed.

“No wonder you always tried to kiss me when you got the chance. To tell you the truth, I like kissing you too,” Minseok admitted shyly. “You always kiss with care,” he added with even smaller voice. _It made me feel loved_ , he added in his mind not dare to voice it out.

“Really? I’m glad,” Lu Han said in sleepy voice. Exhaustion began to take over him and Minseok’s small fingers on his hair helped lulling him into sleep.

Minseok could feel his hand stopped moving mindlessly as he closed his own eyes. Lu Han was still in his tight hold though, the sound of his breathing got even more regular. He thought he could hear the faint whisper of “I love you,” before his mind shifted into dream.

 

“Ugh, you guys are so domestic it’s adorable,” Jongdae commented.

Lu Han and Minseok looked up from their textbook in the midst of the smaller boy explaining how to solve an equation to the brunette. They looked at the bespectacled boy in confusion. “What did we do?” Lu Han raised his eyebrows.

Jongdae shrugged but still smiling widely to his two friends. It had been three weeks since Minseok and Lu Han came out to their best friends. They still acted conserved and casual with each other in front of other people, even their best friends. But the little things they did to each other didn’t get to be left at just that like any other day before the revelation. When Junmyeon or Jongdae saw them discreetly taking care of each other, the two always gave them knowing looks but never went overboard with their teasing. And they were glad of that.

These days the four of them had been studying hard to prepare for the final exam of the semester with late school hours had been spent mostly in the library together.

They were talking about where to go to college. Lu Han decided he would follow Minseok to Seoul National University, because there was no way he could leave him alone to go to the same university as his past crush. Minseok snorted at this because the reason was way ridiculous. Meanwhile Jongdae would go to any university as long as it had music program, as it was his dream all along, and hopefully he could go for scholarship too. Junmyeon told the others that he would pursue law career by attending one of the SKY Universities.

The passing school days were gone with a blur of stress and confusion. The high school seniors started to get anxious with pressure of what was going to come. Minseok wanted to plan for a getaway trip after the high school year was over. So he asked his three friends if they wanted to join for a summer trip. He was planning from months before so that they could save up for the vacation. If they had enough money that would be meant that they could decide on where to go later on.

As the semester’s final ended and then came winter break, Lu Han invited the others to his penthouse to celebrate New Year together. They were having pool match with stakes, and the winner could demand one wish from each of them. Lu Han was winning as he was the most experienced between the four of them, but Jongdae the lucky bastard came swooping at the last moment, leaving the others befuddled. They didn’t know what the wild kid would have in mind with the victory in his hand.

“Let’s keep it PG, okay?” Junmyeon asked earnestly.

“Of course. Who do you think I am? I don’t want to get punch by Minseok,” the bespectacled boy said airily.

The three sighed in relief. But the glint in Jongdae’s eyes still made them anxious at what to come.

“I want Minseok to sing for us. Lu Han to keep his hands off Minseok until the next morning. And Junmyeon, you go get drunk. There’s alcohol somewhere in this house, right Han?” Jongdae finished his list of requests.

It might sound easy, but he knew how much the three hated to do what he asked. The loud groaning that each of them voiced out was enough sign for him.

“My parents locked away all the hard liquor though. But I think they had bottles of wine somewhere in the storage. Let’s just hope they won’t notice one or two of them missing,” he started walking toward the storage on the first floor. “And if I had to keep my hands off of my boyfriend, nobody could touch him either!” he warned looking back with stern eyes and voice.

“Fine. Don’t worry about the alcohol though, this boy could get drunk on wine coolers,” Jongdae said ignoring the glare Junmyeon sent him.

Lu Han came back with two bottles of wine, praying it would be enough. There was a reason his parents locked away the hard liquor, because his mother once caught Lu Han drank the scotch his father stored when he was having a hard time with Minseok months ago. But they kept the wine as they were though, because they often put the bottle for dinner together as they could keep watch on how much their boy drank.

They settled themselves in the second floor living room. Lu Han sat on the single couch by himself, slightly sulking. Junmyeon was on the floor just looking at the glass of wine in front of him on the coffee table, cursing at his own luck. Meanwhile Minseok seemed unaffected, but inside he was fuming. Jongdae looked at his three friends with a smirk.

“Let’s get this started, people! Joonie, drink!” his loud voice booming in the midst of music playing.

Junmyeon sighed and took a big gulp of the wine. He closed his eyes, adjusting himself to the alcohol he took. It might take a while for the effect to sink in, but knowing Junmyeon, he wouldn’t last after the second glass.

“Are you okay?” Minseok asked quietly to his friend.

Junmyeon blinked. “Yeah. It’s actually kinda fun to be like this. I feel free,” the boy smiled.

“You too, Minseok. Go get drunk,” Jongdae said while grinning. “You have a performance to give us.”

“That won’t be enough to get me drunk,” he gestured to the bottles of wine. Lu Han preached his confirmation at that.

“Yeah, but you still need to sing for us!” the bespectacled boy exclaimed.

“Fine. One song.”

Minseok started to sing a children song, The Three Bears. He sang like he was reading a book, stoically and expressionless. Lu Han laughed because that was so not unexpected. Junmyeon was drunkenly clapping his hands and cheered like a child. Jongdae groaned.

“Come on. You’re making me cry. You don’t even do the move. Don’t disappoint me, Minseok,” Jongdae whined.

“Sing a real song Minseok-ah. You have a nice voice,” Lu Han said in encouragement.

Junmyeon started to chant “Sing! Sing! Sing!”

Minseok sighed in defeat. He started to sing The Three Bears again, but this time with the movement. To shut Jongdae up, he even did it cutely and hey, was that phone recording him? He glared at Jongdae at the end of the song.

“Delete it,” he said sternly to the bespectacled boy.

“No way, it’s my wish and you can’t make me,” Jongdae whined.

Minseok sighed again. He let Jongdae be because he couldn’t stand his whining. It wasn’t like he was stripping or something, so.

“Jongdae, send the file to me,” Lu Han piped up while grinning widely.

Jongdae returned the grin and quickly proceeded to fulfill the other’s wish. Minseok glared at them. Junmyeon chuckled happily in the background. He reached for Minseok drunkenly to hold him back, while Lu Han began to play the video and watched it with a big smile on his face. Minseok sighed again.

They continued chatting and playing and making fun of each other as the night went. Turned out, Junmyeon was a clingy drunk, and after Lu Han’s stern warning for him or anyone in that matter not to touch Minseok anymore, Jongdae jumped in to save Junmyeon so he wouldn’t end up crying. He happily clung onto the bespectacled boy and thanked him for being his hero of the night. Jongdae ruffled the other’s dark hair playfully and they continued the group chatting. Minseok smiled the whole time watching his friends’ antics and they somehow ended up pouring their frustration and feeling to the other about what was going on in their life.

At some point Minseok even sang again but this time it was a song by one of his favorite singers. He sang an old ballad titled _A Glass of Soju_ , and the other three was so mesmerized they just looked at him with heart-eyes at the warm melody of his voice. After the song ended he became bashful and shy again so Junmyeon took it upon himself to sing a cheerful song for them. They cheered around and took turn in singing. When it was Jongdae’s turn to sing, they justified that the boy really deserved to be succeeded on his dream of becoming a musical actor and they gave him their full support. The way he sang was so powerful and full of passion they could totally pictured him on the stage belting out a high note and sending goosebumps to his audiences.

“Guys, I love you all so much,” Junmyeon began his sappy speech. They were fairly drunk but they smiled at the sweet sentiment. “Jongdae-yah, I’ll become your number one fan who will follow you the whole time you build your career. But don’t expect me to be your stalker because I have image to build too,” he smiled sheepishly to his best friend and gave him a heartfelt hug. They chuckled together in each other’s hold. “Kim Minseok, I could picture you running your own company, making a big name for yourself. And then there’s Lu Han by your side. I don’t know what he would be doing but I know that he would totally be busy staring at you creepily with eyes full of love,” Junmyeon hugged the cat-eyed boy before giving a hug to the tallest of the four. “Don’t forget this night and don’t forget us, okay?”

“Joonie, it’s not a farewell party. We still have one semester in high school left before we go to college. And I bet we would end up totally go to the same college together. And you, you would be the greatest lawyer or judge or politician or president or whatever you want to be,” Jongdae let out a heartfelt chuckle.

“Thanks. I know, I just love you guys so much,” Junmyeon shrugged.

“He won’t remember being this drunk and sappy,” Minseok commented then chuckled.

“Maybe,” Junmyeon grinned. “But I feel this everyday so it doesn’t matter if in the morning I would’ve forgotten I’ve ever said this.” And then commenced the group hug.

They laughed and happy. They were ready to face the new beginning of the year coming in. When the fireworks started in the night sky outside the house, they startled for a brief moment before went to the balcony to enjoy the view. “Happy New Year!” they shouted into the coming year ahead of him. Lu Han sneaked around to be beside Minseok and kissed him on his cheek before acted nonchalant and looked into the distance while smiling. Minseok smiled too and take Lu Han’s hand and gently caressed it before let go. Lu Han still had to fulfill Jongdae’s wish but this little moment was fine since the bespectacled boy didn’t notice.

After being so tired, they went to Lu Han’s bedroom. Junmyeon was still clinging onto Jongdae and apparently had dozed off. The boy with the glasses chuckled and walked him to the bed. Originally Lu Han had prepared a spare room next to his, but Jongdae sternly said that there was no way he would let Lu Han and Minseok alone in the same room at night because he needed to sleep. The brunette mumbled that they were not that loud but he received a glare from Minseok so he shut up and let the four of them sleep in the same room. The host took his place on the large couch, Minseok on the windowsill making himself comfortable on the mattress, while Junmyeon and Jongdae occupied the large bed. When everybody had tucked in, Minseok turned off the switch and whispered _good_ _night_ to his friends which Lu Han returned with _sweet_ _dream_.

 

Minseok was the first one to wake up. He walked out of the room quietly after brushed his teeth in the bathroom. He went to the kitchen and began to prepare for coffee. Lu Han didn’t have a live-in maid like Minseok’s household, and he didn’t really know what to make for breakfast so he was just standing there waiting for the coffee to be made. Not too long after, Lu Han came from the room with a big smile and hands behind his back. He kissed Minseok shortly before saying, “Good morning.”

“Good morning and happy new year, babe,” he replied with a matching smile. “I made coffee.” He poured a cup for him and Lu Han.

Lu Han thanked him before took a sip and smiled in delight. Minseok knew how to make a delicious coffee and Lu Han, who had come to love coffee because of his boyfriend, had said that his coffee was the best. Lu Han had one hand behind his back and Minseok curiously asked him about it. “Let’s go to the balcony,” he said before taking Minseok’s hand and pulled him along.

“What is it?” the smaller boy asked again while rubbing his bare arms because of the cold morning.

“It’s a gift. It’s not a Christmas gift because I know you said you didn’t need anything, but I’ve been saving up to give you this,” he revealed a small red box in his hand and opened it to show the two rings standing in them. “Um, it’s a couple ring. I know we agreed not to reveal our relationship in public, but I just want you to have a little piece of me. You could wear it on your finger, or you could hang it in a necklace and hide it behind your shirt, or you could keep it safely somewhere. I was thinking of giving you necklace instead but I saved up some of my allowance and I couldn’t wait any longer to give you something. So—”

He was cut off by a pair of lips kissing him desperately to give him the message that _it’s okay, thank you so much, it’s everything I could ever ask for._

“Han, I...” Minseok whispered after the kiss. “Thank you. You don’t know how much you mean to me,” he kissed him again. “Of course I’ll wear it if you do.” He took out one of the ring and put it on his ring finger. He gently circled the band and smiled at the taller boy. And then he took the other one and put it on the other’s ring finger before kissed it softly.

Lu Han smiled at the gesture and took Minseok’s ring finger and kissed it before intertwined their hands and kissed him again on his lips lovingly. Minseok circled his hands around the taller boy’s neck to deepen the kiss and Lu Han embraced his waist tightly. Cold morning would be damned. Lu Han tasted like coffee and morning warmth and he liked it so much. They were so lost in each other’s feel when a small gasp behind them took them back to reality of their friends.

Jongdae and Junmyeon looked at them with their usual warm smile as if they weren’t even a bit bothered by the display of affection they’ve just witnessed. “Um, sorry, we’ll just...” Jongdae said before turned back and took Junmyeon with him.

Minseok was beet red and Lu Han was no far from him, if he touched his ears, he was sure it would be burning. They muttered, “Oh, God...” unconsciously together before bursting into laughter.

“Let’s not make this awkward,” Lu Han said after their laughing fit. Minseok nodded and the taller boy kissed him again shortly before they walked together inside again.

They were greeted with the knowing smiles of their best friends. They were still red in the face so they got teased over it, even more so when they spotted the matching rings on their fingers. Lu Han threatened to be screaming their ears off as he knew the two were having a bad hangover because of last night drinking. Junmyeon surrendered and Jongdae stopped his teasing to save their lives.

Minseok smiled to himself because he knew he wouldn’t be tired of this scene. His boyfriend was his best friend and he knew how lucky he was for that alone. And Lu Han was such a wonderful person he promised to himself that he would protect him with his all. His other best friends were the people he would never get tired of despite their teasing, because he knew how much they were meant for each other. He couldn’t help but think what would they become in the future, but he knew for sure that these people are the ones he would keep around closely to his heart.

He was ready to start the new year or the upcoming years ahead of them together.

 

* * *

They Never Know .:: END ::.

* * *

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Thank you so much for reading this story. I hope you liked it. Thank you for the comments and kudos and of course for the bookmark. Sorry if you caught some mistakes here and there, English isn't my first language but I'm still trying :)
> 
> *shouting* Have a nice day, people! And hey, I love Xiuhan!


End file.
